Keeping My Wallet Dry

This snapshot of me was taken soon after I had walked through a stream.  I am wet from the waist down but still willing to smile for a picture.

When we had to move from point A to B in the jungle, if a stream or a swamp was in the way we simply walked through it.  There was no thought about what could be done to make the crossing a dry one.  The safer choice in fact was always taking the worst path.

Once on the other side I simply drip dried.  I would check for leaches to make sure one or more of them was not attached to my bare skin somewhere.  Our boots had breathing holes close to the sole so they self-drained the water captured there.

That is M60 machine gun ammunition wrapped around my waist.  Sometimes I carried it that way, sometimes I carried it across my shoulders and other times I simply carried the box the ammunition came in.  You can see a one-quart canteen of water fastened on my waist.  There was no thought about getting those things wet.

Wrapped in plastic in my right hand is my wallet.  The only concerns I had when trudging through water was keeping my wallet and M16 rifle dry.  If the water was over my waist, I would hold the wallet in my teeth while holding the rifle up and out of the water with both hands.

My wallet and rifle were the most important possessions I had out there so getting them wet was simply unacceptable.