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Old Army Poncho

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Photo by Will Swann on Unsplash
When I was in the Army.

 Back in the eighties, I would often get these phone calls that would wake me in the middle of the night (of course we called it early morning), to call me away from my wife and children to go to the middle of nowhere. After being tossed around in the back of an armored vehicle, we would arrive at our destination. I never knew exactly where I was because all the trees looked the same no matter what part of the country I was in. I didn't know why I was there. I didn't know how long I was there for or when I would get to go back home. So I was stuck there until those in charged said that we all could go home. It was almost always guaranteed that some time during my stay out there it would rain. It would rain for days. So I would be standing there (because it is my turn to pull guard duty), fully geared up with an M-16 hanging upside-down from my shoulder (to keep the rain out of the barrel), and a poncho (it was the old OD green poncho), covering me from my head to my knees. I stood there, without moving much,  guarding the road into camp while the rain fell at a steady not-too-light not-too-heavy but constant beat. I stood there with my face and my pants from the knees down wet, but, I was dry from my knees to my shoulders. I wouldn't be thinking of much other than watching the road and wanting to sit down. Oh how I wanted to sit down under a tree to try to get a little break from the rain but that wouldn't happen until I was relieved. So I would stand there, thankful that at least two thirds of my body was warm and dry. The problem with standing still in a poncho is that water gathers at the neck, pooling up, but I was unaware of this until it was too late. Suddenly at least a quart of freezing cold water would rush down the once dry front of my body. It would always bypass soaking my coat and shirt and soak my t-shirt sending a shock-wave through my entire body. This would happen again and again until I wised up and started wearing wet-weather gear. Afterwards, I tied the neck of my beloved poncho with a string and turned it into a water-proof tent.

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