Terry D. Sutherland

THE WEDDING PARTY

A wedding party, intelligence said
Two VC cadre were ready to wed
For unity of people, they'd share their bed
A symbol for VC already dead

An aestival wedding the 26th of June
Five batteries of artillery started at noon
They fired for an hour that day in June
Then ten sorties of Phantoms would start soon

The General said, "Crank up my bird"
An air assault by the One Seventy Third
An infantry battalion of the famous Herd
Would land at the wedding in twenty birds

As the General flew Command and Control
He watched a Phantom follow his bombs to the hole
No one knows why the pilot rolled
He followed his ordnance and gave his soul

The air assault of a battalion brave
Found no party that they could raid
If there were bodies in shallow graves
They were fresh dug and newly made

The rest were gone and none were wed
Was the cost of the battle worth the dread?
The cost was that of one pilot dead
Most of the party had previously fled