Saunders Comes Clean
By: Mojo

First squad of the 361^st k company had set up an op out in the middle of no where. Sgt. Saunders couldn’t believe it, what a break both for the men but especially for himself. It had been hard fighting the last couple of weeks and everyone was exhausted and filthy dirty, they even smelled foul. There was a small river down over the little hill right before an expansion of wood started.

All the guys eventually got to take baths when it wasn’t their turn at the windows. They couldn’t wait. Doc went first, then LittleJohn and Billy. Next came Cage and Kirby. Kirby was so clean he actually squeaked. They had clean hair and shaved and even some of their clothing was clean. Things they had in their packs.

Saunders, who was the dirtiest, actually looked like he fell in a mud puddle and rolled around in it but the smell was the worst. The guys couldn’t even approach him, he smelled so bad. Must have had a little cow or sheep dung in that puddle. Saunders had no idea he smelled so bad because after living with the smell for so long you can’t smell it anyhow.

After the men had all settled in and were starting to eat their rations, such as they were, Saunders sent Billy on lookout and unrolled his blanket, thinking to just lay his very tired body on it and get some rest.

First Kirby started “ geeze Sarge you really ought to go take a nice relaxing bath in the river, the water is cold but it feels so good.

Well that was all Saunders needed, “cold water” I don’t think so. The Sarge stated matter of fact that he would wash in the morning and turned to the wall to sleep.

All the guys just looked at each other. They couldn’t believe their ears. Were they going to have to smell that all night long. They tried but couldn’t take it. They all rushed Sarge grabbing him by the arms and legs and hauled him to the river and threw him in. he tried to get away the whole way down the hill but they weren’t going to let him get away. He was yelling about courtmartials and such and really looked pissed.

After they threw him in he couldn’t catch his breath the water was so cold. All the guys stood on the shore in a line so he couldn’t get out. Saunders kinda went off the deep end for awhile but eventually did get clean. When he finally got to the edge and dried off a little he realized they were right, he looked and smelled so much better. The problem was how would he punish these guys for what they did. He decided to just have them line up in order and pushed each one of them back in the river. Then he walked back to the op with a big grin on his face.