This is a story about about a unusual recurring dream from my early teen years.
Angel on my Shoulder
Been There Done That
by: Lee Helle
Spring 1966 C Co, 2nd/28th Inf 1st Inf Div
From the age of 14 to 17 or 18 I kept having this same dream over and over again:
I was walking up a creek . . . there was heavy brush on both sides, the creek was shallow and not very wide, don't know where I was going but it was always the same. After awhile, I would come to a long straight stretch and at the end the creek it would curve to the right. After the curve I would come to a road that forded the creek---then I would wake up.
The dream was always the same
Years later, 1966, I ended up in C Co, 2nd/28th Inf 1st Inf Div, I had been in the outfit maybe a month when my Plt was dropped off at one spot and we had to travel to another location maybe an hour or so away.
Being an old country boy, and pretty darn green, I was walking point through some rough brush when we came upon this small stream. The stream ran in the general direction we wanted to go, so off we went. Easy walking. We can see after maybe fifteen to twenty minutes that the stream straightened out, and you could see maybe thirty-five to forty yards ahead.
About this time I got the weirdest darn feeling! I knew this place. Then my memories came back. I could see the bend in the creek, to the right, and I knew that there was something around that bend that I did not want to see. Anyway, the Platoon Sergeant thought I was nuts, but we made a right hand turn into the bush and went maybe a 100 yards then turned back left on our old azimuth. We hadn't traveled ten minutes when we came upon a well traveled trail that led in the direction of the creek we had been walking up.
We did NOT go down that trail, to be honest if Gen Depuy had been there and made it a order we might have, (with him walking point)
In time I acquired a rep as being lucky or maybe just extra careful? Plus having that built in sixth sense that most country boys do when it comes to finding your way in the woods. From fire-team leader to Plt Sgt I never had a man get a scratch.
