Chapter 160 Section 9

In 1961, after graduating from high school, Mike Peterson went to Duke University in Durham.This famous university has produced many famous graduates, including former US President Richard Nixon, who is familiar to the Chinese people, and Senator Elizabeth, wife of 1996 presidential candidate Barb Dole.Mike majored in political science at Duke University, and he was also one of the "student politicians" who attracted the attention of teachers and students at the time.He has participated in the school's debate team and law seminars, has run for president and president of the student body, and chaired the school's school magazine and yearbook.

One summer vacation, Mike visited relatives in his father's new garrison, and met a girl next door in the military compound, Padisia Bateman, who came home from the University of Texas at Austin for vacation.She became the first Mrs. Peterson. In 1965, Mike Peterson graduated from Duke University and immediately entered the Law School of North Carolina State University in Chapel Hill, but he quit school soon after he participated in some student activities that conflicted with the school. The previous year, the United States began sending troops to Vietnam, and the Pentagon was in dire need of manpower.Mike Peterson's professional and background enabled him to successfully obtain a contract worker in the non-military establishment of the Ministry of Defense, and the official title is called "Strategic Analyst".The specific task Mike was sent to Vietnam was to analyze the possibility of two or more mechanized divisions working together to win.But this is just an external statement.In fact, according to Shangfeng's secret message to Mike, no matter what the actual situation is, what they need is an affirmative answer, so even if the facts are contrary to it, Mike Peterson must write "undoubtedly" in his report. example" to prove this pre-determined conclusion.

Before departure, Mike hurried home to marry Paddy Bateman, which made Peterson's family excited for a few days, because the new Paddy Xia was virtuous and gentle, caring and considerate, just like the oriental culture The "three obediences and four virtues" cultivated in the book are the ideal daughter-in-law in the eyes of parents and the ideal sister-in-law in the eyes of younger brothers and sisters. Mike Peterson faithfully carried out the tasks assigned by Shang Feng in Vietnam, and soon fell in love with the war. To be precise, he fell in love with the rich imagination and broad writing space that the war can provide.Although he also saw the illegal currency transactions conducted by his colleagues in private on the Vietnam battlefield, saw all kinds of fraud in the upper echelons of the army, and obtained completely different first reports including the daily casualty reports in the army and the reports sent back to China by the media. However, it was at that time that Mike Peterson secretly made up his mind that he wanted to be a writer, he wanted to write about wars, and he wanted to become a "war specialist" among American writers.

Mike Peterson decided to follow the example of the master writer Ernest Hemingway, and actually devoted himself to the war in order to write about the war, not just limited to the current "analyst" who is a bystander.According to American law, college graduates are not obliged to serve in the army, not to mention that Mike has a leg injury and belongs to 4F in the medical examination level.But he did a little deception, erased this paragraph in the medical record, and after half a year of hard training, he finally put on the leather uniform of the Marine Corps in 1968-in the United States, Marine Corps members are People nicknamed it "leather neck".

Also in this year, Mike's wife, now named Padisia Peterson, followed her husband's family to Copenhagen, Denmark.She originally planned to find a job locally, but was sent by the Ministry of National Defense to the Hahn Air Force Base on the border between West Germany and Luxembourg, where she worked as a primary school teacher for children of military families there. At that time, the anti-war movement in the United States was surging, especially the students of various universities.Politically, both Mike and Patricia opposed the Vietnam War.Mike had made anti-war remarks in public, and Paddy Xia participated in organizing student demonstrations.But in order to realize his ideals and aspirations, Mike Peterson went to Vietnam to join the war without hesitation after the recruit training was over.

Because of his education, Mike Peterson was awarded the rank of second lieutenant and commanded a 30-man amphibian platoon, along with a team of mechanics and four infantrymen from the Army that staffed the platoon.The main function of an amphibious vehicle is to transport items such as weapons and equipment on board warships and transport ships from the ship to the coast, or vice versa.The coastline of Vietnam is very long, so during the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps also used this vehicle as a coastal patrol vehicle. At that time Vietnam was divided into two hostile parts, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.Mike Peterson and his amphibian platoon were sent to the extreme north of South Vietnam, stationed on the coastline separated from North Vietnam by a barbed wire fence.Their task is to be responsible for the military supply of various troops from the sea, and to take care of the security along the coastline.Ordinarily, this is a relatively safe position.

At first, the officers and soldiers in the platoon ignored their "college student platoon leader".It's no wonder that soldiers are all warriors, and only Kong Wu and his generation follow.But over time, they found that Mike had some leadership skills and super perseverance.The only problem, "It's hard to sit down with him and have a normal conversation. He seems to be thinking about something all the time, analyzing every word you say, even every word." On February 21, 1969, during the Vietnamese Tet Festival, Mike Peterson and his soldiers brought toy candies and other items to nearby villages to distribute to children celebrating the festival.

On the night of February 22, the amphibian platoon's station was suddenly attacked by North Vietnamese forces.When Mike Peterson saw a large dense area of ​​the enemy through the luminous telescope handed over by the panicked sentry, his mind suddenly went blank.At that time, the soldiers had already taken their positions, just waiting for the commander to give an order, but their second lieutenant platoon leader was dumbfounded and said nothing. When the soldiers realized that Mike was indeed wrong, someone shouted: "Winters, slap him!" Winters was the soldier closest to Mike, and he jumped up, shot left and right, and slapped the platoon leader with two big ears.What happened next was like something out of a Disney cartoon: Mike Peterson returned from hallucinations to reality, and he began to ask questions aloud, give orders aloud, and yell into the microphone, asking the headquarters to send reinforcements, send Bomber fleet...