Special thanks to Old Mack

nyc Can you recall the first time you craved beer? < TheveryOldMack > 2006-11-07 02:39:02
I couldn't hack the taste of beer, but when we came off the Outpost, after 67 days of living in rat's caves too close to our own shit trench and too close to three other unwashed men, the supply sergeant handed each of us two 1 Liter bottles of Asahi Jap beer. It was piss warm and tasted as bad as it smelled. The other men in my squad all drank it with gusto, proclaiming the Japs to be the best beer brewers that side of Milwaukee. I gagged the stuff down, got drunk and into a fight with a Kentucky hillbilly who said: "I don't like your face, kid." We rearranged each others features and passed out. That was the beginning of the long, hot, wet Korean Summer. There was a battle for a mole hill on the hottest day on record. After being bombed by one of our own planes, blown off the damned hill, I pulled myself together and headed for the rear with our outfit. Along the way 3 artillery rounds came in close and blew a couple of men to pieces. Some of that white hot Chink steel hit me in the arm and hearing it sizzle with all of the noise and confusion around me, I had an insane craving for a beer. Any brand of beer, so long as it was bitter and wet would do. I gathered my stuff again and continued down the trail to the edge of a dry rice paddy. There I spotted a foxhole and jumped into it. The hole was deep enough to stand in, but filled with water chest deep. I buried my face in that muck and drank half a Liter. It tasted just like Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. "It was crawlin' and it stunk/ but of all the drinks I've drunk. . . ." that one tasted the most like beer.