“Luke the Gook”
September 25th, 2009 by Jack Orth | FLASHBACKS | | 1 Comments
The Gunny
Freestyle Jacket
Trigger was low on chow, and my stash in the cupboard was in the same shape. Reminded me of when I was a kid during the depression and parents would tell us about “Old Mother Hubbard, who went to the cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone. But, when she got there, the cupboard was bare, so the poor dog had none!” That brought a smile to my face, as I told good old Trigger we were heading to the Supply Sergeant to load up the seabag with chow.
Threw on my Leatherneck Square Freestyle Jacket. It’s water and wind-resistant and you’ll be needing one for the fall and winter. A special faded OD modern EGA with Marines on the left chest create an outstanding look. O.K., Trigger, jump in the “Tank”, and we’ll head off to Supply.
Picked up everything we needed for a couple of weeks, and headed back to the C.P. to have a cold one and give Trigger his favorite treat before evening chow .. a “Slim Jim”, and a few ounces of “Rolling Rock” .. the buy of the week! Every so often I get this craving for thin spaghetti with garlic and oil … nothing fancy, just the garlic and oil. Three or four large cloves of garlic (minced) fried in olive oil, then mix in with the spaghetti and some parmesan cheese …. and fresh Italian bread! The great garlic smell stays in the bunker a few days, and it’s like Heaven! Then, I had a “flashback”!
When I first went on line in Korea with H/3/7, the salty short timers always told us if you smelled garlic blowing in the wind, “Luke the Gook” was close by. All they ate was fish heads and garlic the soon-to-be-heading-back-to-the-States Marines told us. Well, I never gave it much thought, and crossed it off to just plain B.S.
On my third or fourth patrol, we left the MLR in darkness and headed out into no-man’s land to set up an ambush. There’s nothing quite like way below zero weather, and lying on the deck for hours waiting for “Luke” to make a move. After a certain period of time, you start seeing things that aren’t there! Ya gotta blink your eyes often, and focus correctly before you drive yourself nuts.
Then it happened … the breeze was blowing our way, and I could swear I smelled garlic! … and, I wasn’t alone! The kid from Pittsurgh whispered, “I know it ain’t pizza, but it sure smells like Mama Mia’s Restaurant!”
We waited … we waited … and heard noises heading our way. Being in a perfect position, we could have nailed “Luke” as he and his crew came over the skyline. Just as we thought we were in the middle of “Mama Mia’s Restaurant”, the garlic smell went away! A few hours later, we were back in our bunkers on the MLR, and damn glad of it.
Now we were the salty ones, and could tell the new troops that garlic meant Gooks, and to stand by for a ram! The kid from Pittsburgh laughed in our warm bunker, and said for the rest of his life whenever he had Italian food, he’d think of our patrols into no-man’s land.
Well, my spaghetti was superior, and Trigger had a slice of garlic bread to go with the Slim Jim. I, too, thought of the aroma of garlic blowing in the sub-zero wind in Korea!
Stay off the skyline, and I’ll trade you a can of fruit cocktail for a can of those wonderful greasy sausage patties!
Semper Fi …… The Gunny
on September 26th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I love this little anectode…
I will never smell garlic the same again!!