Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen(2)/ Charles Chuang

Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen(2)/ Charles Chuang There was a white laboratory across the street from the bus stop following a sitting lady and did not want to go away. He was so adorable. I walked across the street. She kept on whispering to the dog back home. The dog usually followed her to the bus stop for food and without food, he was not leaving. Actually, it was a bag of two pieces deep fly rice cookie which was my favorite as well. He concentrated eating the cookies. Something came in to my mind, I asked her that I knew. There was this soldier in my old company who married a local girl after I left. She told me, as a matter of fact, that this man was in the village for the time being to celebrate his father-in-law’s 96 birthday. She asked an old man on an electrical wheel to show me where the house was. I recognized the man instantly. He was drinking sorghum liquor with his brothers and sisters in law in the front court yard. I was received warmly and took him 30 minutes to recognize whom I was. He was assigned to our unit not too long before I was discharged. Chung Lung and our captain, as a matter of fact was a major, were with the same surname while the captain’s first name was Gin Lung which means golden dragon. After I was discharged, it was Chung Lung’s turn to be given all the hard time by the captain. In the army we called it a shock, electrical shock or whip, lash to receive discipline regularly. I have been very stupid and stubborn by birth and many people like to discipline me all the time. Luckily I met some officers from Santong, China, gave me some help to avoid bad consequences. He, Chung Lung, described a story which occurred after I left. He followed a first lieutenant Chen, the commander of a field hospital, to Kinmen for regular business. Chen decided to delay two days to return to our unit and was found guilty by a punishment of isolation in a closed barracks. There were many other surgeons in our company/filed hospital from , for example, draftees from civilian medical school graduate, graduate from military medical school such as Chen, and supporting army surgeons from the first army corporation etc. The Captain was not worry at all and in the name of discipline, both of them should be punished with no exception. Chung Lung has no regret what so ever for that punishment and I have no idea about Chen. One day there was an accident in training at Da Dan Island, the island adjacent to Leiyu even closer to Shamen, China that I would say about 4,000 meters away. The commander, a brigadier, accompanied the wounded rush to our field hospital. He demand to see the chief of the hospital as asking why he was absent from the hospital and report and brief the situation to him. The captain’s private was scared and responded with a full army reporting manner that the chief was jailed by the captain. The brigadier , also the vice division commander, pulled out his pistol and yelled to the captain, you set him free or I’ll soot you right on the spot. The captain and our new battalion commander all had a face like a color of pork liver. I stayed over nigh and attended the 96 birthday dinner and witnessed how the guests enjoying drinking. This reminded me that year when I was a guest of my old friend’s family for a local celebration dinner and got drunk. The liquor was made from sorghum. Because of the high quality, sorghum liquor production cannot meet the high demand from China. The next morning, he took me back to the village and took some pictures for my memory. Leiyu reminds me most difficult time of my life including the difficulty of my son Arthur’s defect birth difficulty. Where there is a will, there is always a way.