Quick "war story.." Arriving south of Da Nang in 1965, our unit camped at the base of huge, cavernous rock monoliths, "Marble Mountain." At that early point in the war, the Viet Cong "owned" Marble Mountain and repeatedly sniped at us from honeycombed cave openings, day & night. One night, after about two weeks, we hung up a large canvas…
Quick "war story.." Arriving south of Da Nang in 1965, our unit camped at the base of huge, cavernous rock monoliths, "Marble Mountain." At that early point in the war, the Viet Cong "owned" Marble Mountain and repeatedly sniped at us from honeycombed cave openings, day & night. One night, after about two weeks, we hung up a large canvas on the side of a six-by truck and our "film entertainment crew" turned on the big projector and we watched Jane Fonda in "Cat Ballou." By happenstance, I think, the"screen"was available to those perched with weapons way up above us, on Marble Mountain. The whole time the movie was on, they never fired at us. When it went off, they began firing again! The next day, we moved up on the monoliths and chased them out. No more Cat Ballou for them. But here is the point: We all--Viet Cong and Marines--wanted to watch Jane Fonda.
You're not alone; there are a bunch of old farts in this class. I must have seen it in 8th or 9th grade, and around that time we were using a science textbook that had a side bar about the great 15c astronomer Tycho Brahe. The side bar left out that fact that he lost part of his nose in a sword duel and most of his life wore a silver (or gold?) prosthetic. I wanted to correct this omission, also having a feeling there would be a lot of disbelief and a funny ruckus (I was an instinctive anti social realist). It got a bunch of the class shouting that I was talking about Lee Marvin in Cat Balou -- a perfect outcome IMHO.
Quick "war story.." Arriving south of Da Nang in 1965, our unit camped at the base of huge, cavernous rock monoliths, "Marble Mountain." At that early point in the war, the Viet Cong "owned" Marble Mountain and repeatedly sniped at us from honeycombed cave openings, day & night. One night, after about two weeks, we hung up a large canvas on the side of a six-by truck and our "film entertainment crew" turned on the big projector and we watched Jane Fonda in "Cat Ballou." By happenstance, I think, the"screen"was available to those perched with weapons way up above us, on Marble Mountain. The whole time the movie was on, they never fired at us. When it went off, they began firing again! The next day, we moved up on the monoliths and chased them out. No more Cat Ballou for them. But here is the point: We all--Viet Cong and Marines--wanted to watch Jane Fonda.
I love this story!
Her blue jeans were the "draw,' you see..
😂I’m old enough to have seen that film Cat Ballou
You're not alone; there are a bunch of old farts in this class. I must have seen it in 8th or 9th grade, and around that time we were using a science textbook that had a side bar about the great 15c astronomer Tycho Brahe. The side bar left out that fact that he lost part of his nose in a sword duel and most of his life wore a silver (or gold?) prosthetic. I wanted to correct this omission, also having a feeling there would be a lot of disbelief and a funny ruckus (I was an instinctive anti social realist). It got a bunch of the class shouting that I was talking about Lee Marvin in Cat Balou -- a perfect outcome IMHO.