Ulysses Dream

by Tim White

  The prisoners were taken on runs to gather manioc. On one of the runs, they spotted Cerberus, and the guards shot at him, missing. They cursed the wild dog as if they were superstitious and afraid of him. Of course the POWs were under heavy guard during these runs. For Ulee the physical training and runs gave him hope and energy.

  Every night Ulee would look into the jungle to catch a glimpse of his loyal friend Cerberus. He had somehow followed and found him and was waiting wisely in the jungle. One night they even found a dead chicken near their cage. Cerberus had killed and brought it to them. Cerberus licked Ulee’s tears through the bamboo bars. The other prisoners could not believe their eyes. Then the loyal war dog disappeared into the jungle again.

  The interrogations were indescribable. Ulee was hung from the ceiling of the interrogation hut. He was beaten with a bamboo rod. He was cut all over his chest and back. They cut off his ring finger a quarter of the way down. All of this took place with his fellow prisoners never hearing a sound except the shouting of the rat-faced commander of the prisoner of war camp. He spoke English and he yelled profanities, trying to get Ulee to break. Slater was a part of it, as he was at all of the torture sessions of each prisoner. Slater cried like a baby during the torture of Ulee, but there was no sound from this young warrior. Ulee was running in his mind in the high Wallowa Mountains. Sometimes as Ulee was being tortured they could hear Cerberus barking from the jungle. He could tell what was going on, and he was trying to encourage Ulee as well as warn the Viet Cong. Ulee finally broke down and let out long groans of pain. It broke the hearts of each of his fellow POWs. It was so sorrowful to see this strong man broken. Cerberus howled from the jungle as he heard his owner cry. It was eerie to the VC to experience the bond between this savage and his beast.

  All of this torture was spaced so that Ulee could gather his strength again for more torture. They were trying to break his spirit. When he was brought back to the bamboo tiger box with McCleary, the captain begged him to break and tell them everything. They wanted to know passwords, strategy for recon teams, and how snipers were equipped and trained. Ulee gave them nothing. They told him what he already knew—how the Native Americans had been lied to, how their treaties had been broken, and how they suffered in poverty.

  Ulee told them, “Every society had injustice, and in a democracy we overcome our difficulties.”

  One time after a very vicious torture session in which the jungle resonated with Ulee’s broken moans and cries Ulee returned a completely broken man. It was a Vietnamese holiday and several of the prisoners were together in the tiger hootch made out of bamboo. Ulee was brought in and dropped in the middle of the floor. One of African-American prisoners said, come on, white man don’t give up. You are going to live through this. Don’t lose hope. Ulee yelled, “I am not a white man–I am a Nez Perce warrior.” Captain McCleary said, “Let’s do something Nez Perce.” Ulee said, gather around and pretend it is cold and we have a crackling fire. I am going to tell you a story. One Marine POW started to pound on the bamboo like it was a drum. And Ulee began, “it was a day like any other day. I was a kid in the Tri-Cities where the sun almost always seems to shine. It was a place where the most we worried about were sports. I was trying to pole vault for the first time and I saw the most beautiful woman in the history of the world, Penelope Morales Santos. Her eyes were so beautiful that I could get lost in her eyes for eternity.” Everyone smiled as they started to hear the legend and then the guards came and separated us. But Ulee had found new courage in the telling of the story.

  When the horrible torture continued, Ulee just kept saying, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and thought how God had miraculously sent him his Beauceron to help him escape. When he passed out, they took him back to the cage. Two guards carried him, and one followed carrying the AK-47s. When they threw him on the floor, one of the guards kicked him in the ribs. On the second kick, Ulee grabbed his foot, surprising everyone. He did a kip-up and was on his feet. It was just as he had trained his whole life. He did a spinning kick and broke the neck of one of the guards. As he fell to the ground, it was obvious he was dead. He kicked the groin of a second guard and broke his neck with a side kick. He was too close to the guard with the AK to shoot. So, he hit him in the Adam’s apple so he could not breathe. He broke his nose with his open hand and blinded him with the other hand, inserting fingers in his eyes. The two battled until Ulee thrust his hand through his solar plexus, killing his enemy. This all happened in less than two minutes. A guard with another AK came running, and Ulee dove at his legs and did a hard bodyslam takedown with him. As they scrambled, Ulee broke his wrist, then did a reversal and came around behind him and broke his neck with a full nelson.

  Captain McCleary sat horrified, fearing that guards would certainly kill everyone in the hut. Ulee punched the captain with an upper cut and knocked him out; he fell over Ulee, who hoisted him in a fireman’s carry. He picked up both AKs, and with them blazing, he ran for the jungle feeling like the captain who had been a prisoner of war for years weighed nothing.

  Cerberus emerged from the jungle running at full speed. He jumped two fences, both higher than five feet, and then he landed on some of the pursuing guards. Their shots were ineffective against the speed of the war dog. He leapt at the throat of the first enemy, tearing it and killing him immediately. He grabbed another by groin as these dogs instinctively do. All the commotion caused the enemy to turn their attention to the dog as Ulee dropped the AKs and ran as fast as he could to the relative safety of the jungle wall. Ulee led the enemy for a chase in the dark for ten miles. That was his training range, and it was amazing how fresh he felt as he ran carrying the skinny captain on his back. Finally, he felt exhausted and dropped the captain. He buried him in the jungle floor and then buried himself. The VC guards ran right by them. The dogs that they had with them were on the scent of Cerberus who outran those dogs and turned back to kill each one—one at a time—grabbing by the neck and shaking them like they were rag dolls. The death howls by the guards’ German shepherds echoed through the jungle. By the time the guards found that their Russian-imported guard dogs all were gone, it was too late. The sight of these dead dogs added to their superstition as to Cerberus and his master, “The Savage.” The guards kept mumbling. “Một cái gì đó về con chó đen này và tổng man rợ của mình không phải con người họ là quỷ.” Or in English, “Something about that black dog and his savage master is not human—they are ghosts.”

  Ulee and his captain were headed northeast towards Laos—the opposite way that the guards would expect them to go. Ulee left no tracks. He made a stone knife and then made a bow with three arrows with a stone arrowhead. He felt safe and confident. Thirty miles out, he left the captain buried in the jungle floor; again, his only companionship was Cerberus, who lay near the captain to guard him. Now McCleary was full from the meal that the jungle provided for them. But he reached out and put his arm around Cerberus like a boy with his puppy, scared at night. Cerberus licked him and comforted this heroic POW. Ulee circled back and set booby traps and ambushed those who were trying to follow them. He killed five with his bow, reusing the arrows. He left their bodies hanging naked from the trees upside down, (the same position they had tortured him) tied with vines to warn those who were following. They believed him to be an Indian warrior returned from the dead to punish them.

  Ulee picked up McCleary and carried him once again for miles. The pursuing VC squad was nothing to underestimate. They tracked well in the jungle. When Ulee arrived at the Ho Chi Min trail, he encountered another squad. As fate would have it, the VC Ulee and Luau had faced—the enemy tracker Ulee had nicknamed Pinkerton—was hot on their trail. Ulee was outwitted; he did not know what to do. So he prayed. “Lord Jesus I wish I were home in the Wallowa mountains to escape my enemy.” Just then he heard the territorial roar of a tiger.

  It was just as when he was a boy encountering the grizzly.

  He smiled as Captain McCleary trembled,
saying, “That is all we need.”

  Ulee said, “Yes it is. Don’t be afraid; that cat can smell fear. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

  Ulee used every trick he had learned as a child to hide their scent and let the tiger know that they were not the prey to be hunted. The Viet Cong were terrified, and the tiger could smell it. Ulee watched from the top of a tree as the tiger hunted the pursuing Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regulars. Their belief in reincarnation added to the fear that forces of demons were working under Ulee’s control. This was the room the two escaped prisoners and their dog needed. The breeze was working with them and against the VC, so they moved towards the border to Laos.

  Ulee knew of a Green Beret encampment there. As they approached the camp, they were both wearing Vietnamese clothing, and they took off their “Nan La,” or Vietnamese sun hats and both yelled, “We are Americans,” as loud as they could. Bullets snapped by them from the M-16s. They yelled their names—Ulee had worked with this A-team before. They collapsed, wondering if they had been shot by friendly fire.

  Ulee woke up in the Green Beret barracks with a sergeant telling him, “You were lucky you were not killed by friendly fire. God must have had a plan for your lives because very few escaped prisoner of war camps in this war.”

  Seeing that McCleary was safe, Ulee was quickly outfitted with sniper gear from the Green Berets, and as he walked out of camp in came Cerberus. The dog had been providing a distraction as they made the last leg of their journey to the American encampment. Cerberus was limping, missing one eye, and severely wounded, but what a reunion. Cerberus licked Ulee, and Ulee spoke to him in Nez Perce, petting him. Then Ulee left, after putting Cerberus on a leash and giving him to the captain.

  Ulee picked up the trail of his enemies. He tracked them all the way back to the prisoner of war camp, taking the enemy out one at a time. The last one to die was Pinkerton who realized that all his friends had been killed and now he was the one being tracked and chased. Finally, Ulee stood before him, blocking the trail to North Vietnam. They both had AKs pointed at one another. Ulee threw his down, pulling out his Marine Kbar knife. Pinkerton laughed and aimed at Ulee and pulled the trigger.

  Ulee dived into the jungle. As Pinkerton approached the spot where Ulee had once stood, Ulee jumped from a tree and covered his enemy in a chokehold, making him drop his weapon. Ulee ended his hated enemy’s life with the knife. “I am sorry. We both knew it would end this way,” he said.

  Ulee returned to the POW camp where he had been held, but it was empty. The prisoners had been transferred to Hanoi. He reluctantly went back to the Green Beret camp and was flown to Da Nang in a helicopter. He recovered, lifting weights when he could; then it was off to a hospital in Hawaii for evaluation. I met him in Hawaii with Ulee’s parents.

  It was May, 1971. Ulee had joined the Marines in November 1968, so he had done three tours of Vietnam and been in the heart of the worst action. He was not alone. A few warriors always see most of the action and many see no action when it comes to war. For me this was unthinkable; I was emotionally worn out from loving someone who continued to sign up again and again for war.

  In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, women can do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome. While we hugged and kissed when we met and I enjoyed his parents so much—we had a lot to talk about. We walked the white sandy beach at Walmanalo Park hand in hand. The ocean was turquoise blue and the water warm when we swam together and kissed underwater. The rocks coming down to the water in the distance and the shade of the trees gave us the feeling that we were in paradise. We were.

  Ulee had injuries, but he recovered quickly. I asked him how he looked so good after being a POW. He said that he was serving in special operations; they were given weights, hard workouts, and shots that the training sergeant called juice.

  “What is in the juice I asked?”

  “No one asks—there are so many questions that no one asks when it comes to special operations.”

  We were too good of friends for me to beat around the bush. “Ulee, I am not comfortable with all the killing you are doing. And you keep signing up for more. You could have come home two years ago.”

  “Do you think I am comfortable with it? I never wanted to kill a human being. These are my people, villagers for the most part. They come from tribes of primitives. Their faces look a lot like the faces of my family.” Ulee began to cry “Aheeeeeeee. What have I done, Jesus?”

  I didn’t say anything. I just hugged him. He seemed like a child in my arms. He sobbed so hard. I felt like this strong warrior somehow felt safe with me, that I could see a part of his heart that no one would ever see. I prayed for all those traumatized by war that did not have someone that loved them as much as I loved Ulysees Looking Glass Sundown.

  After an hour of walking he spoke again. “I am good at war. It was like God made me to be a warrior. And so many of these soft hippies are nice people, but they can’t shoot a gun under pressure even if they are called marksmen. They are courageous and have saved my life plenty of times, but they are not as gifted at war as I am. They are my friends and they die. Every time I see one die it is like watching a little boy die a horrible death. I believe I owe it to my brothers in combat to do the fighting for those that should be home watching TV or sitting at a desk job. For the most part, these city boys are just being sent off to be slaughtered. I can’t come home as long as I know I have one friend serving. You have no idea, Penny, the heroic friends I have lost in this fight, the horrible pictures I have in my head. These friends saved my life. I need to be the last man out.”

  “There is such injustice on both sides. Penny, I care for the people of Vietnam. They feel like Native Americans. They are tribesmen with a war being fought over two philosophical powers that are both spotted with hypocritical elements. There is the good and bad on both sides, and I still believe that totalitarian communism must be stopped. Their dreams are our nightmares.”

  “So why does it have to be you?” I yelled. “Is it going to help if you get yourself killed? Haven’t you made us suffer enough? Can’t some other mountain boy come and be a star of the Special Forces?”

  “I am not the star. There are country boys that have done far more than I have, and they never got any medals for it.” There is one sniper named Carlos Hathcock with the First Marine division. He has a record ninety-three confirmed North Vietamese and Viet Cong kills. He even shot a general one time. He made a shot almost a mile long and won a dual against the North Vietnamese greatest sniper by shooting through his scope and hitting them in the eye. The Viet Cong nicknamed him White Feather and he is much more of a hero than I would ever be.”

  “It sounds like you have made up your mind that you are going to stay until the war ends.”

  Ulee looked into my eyes. “Your eyes are beautiful when you get angry. Listen, Penny, I love you more than I could ever put into words. I just want to be with you for eternity.”

  We were both crying when we came back. Ulee’s mom was a strong woman of noble character. I talked to her for over an hour after we came back.

  The beautiful Elizabeth Sundown never pulled punches when she talked. “Penny, maybe you should pray about asking Ulee to marry you. Ulee makes his decisions by his heart. He has a tender heart and he follows his heart.”

  “Maybe you need to give a young man a good reason to come home,” Mrs. Sundown concluded.

  Ulee and I were both eighteen. So I went out to look for him, and his dad told me that he had gone for his ten mile run.

  “What is the juice that they are giving him?” he asked me.

  “I don’t know, Reverend Sundown,” I replied. Caleb Sundown had fought in war and was well read. But he was even better at reading people.

  He spoke with the wisdom of a chief. “You are a very smart girl who lives to study in the medical field someday—I think you have an idea.”

  “I know some East Germans and Russians are injecting anabo
lic steroids and human growth hormone to make them bigger, stronger, and faster,” I said. “It is going to become a huge issue in the sports competition someday. My guess is that it is some kind of hormone. I am afraid because it is experimental and has to be dangerous.”

  “Well—walking through the jungle with Viet Cong after you is even more dangerous. We need him to come home. Did my wife talk to you about proposing to our son?” the wise older pastor asked.

  “Isn’t he supposed to propose to me?”

  “Yes,” laughed Caleb. “But if you haven’t noticed, he is stubborn. He showed you he loved you when he fought that gangster for you. He is just lost in the quicksand of war, and maybe you are the one to rescue him.”

  “You know, Pastor Sundown? You are right. I am well read in the medical field, and this whole conversation isn’t healthy. I don’t want to be manipulated by my pastor. I love Ulee, but we need to have a healthy relationship—not one where we are trying to save each other.”

  Caleb patted me on my head like I was a little girl. “I can see why Ulee loves you, Penelope. You are a noble Christian woman—and beautiful.”

  I asked. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you are right. We are sorry—it is not in our position to ask you to propose to our son. Please forgive us.” He spoke with such sincerity.

  “Yes, Pastor. Healthy Christianity is knowing that even pastors are imperfect people.”

  That night I couldn’t get their idea out of my mind. The next morning, I ran with Ulee along the beach. We stopped.

  “Penny, I want to marry you, but I don’t want to leave you as a widow.” He wrapped me in his strong arms and kissed me so gently.