By: Bud Alexis
I joined the Marine Corp reserve when I was in the 11th grade, and each summer we would have to go to Camp Pendleton, Ca, for training. It was on one of these tours that I had the following event.
It was early in the morning and we were having maneuvers up in the hills. I was posted on the top side of a hill, which was the rear of the main group. That was just in case any of the enemy forces would try to attack from the rear. It was a nice morning, cool, sun just coming up and peaceful.
The hill was just steep enough that I could stretch out my legs while I sat. I laid the barrel of my rifle across my thigh and waited. I sat fairly close to some foliage but not in it, because I needed a wide view. After the sun had been up for a little while, I noticed some movement coming out of the brush. That movement soon became evident of a medium size diamond back rattlesnake. I was rather close to it so I didn’t want to make any sudden movements. I was about three or four feet from the shrub, and by the time I realized what it was I froze. The snake slithered next to my boot and began to sun itself. I mean to tell you it was up tight against my boot. All kinds of thoughts were running thru my mind. What if the enemy showed up right now. What if it tried to crawl up on me. What if, what if! Finally I decided that I would see if I could slowly, very slowly, get my rifle in position to shoot the thing. I very slowly moved my hand down to the safety switch on my M-1, and took it off of safety. It made a clicking sound, that did not go un-noticed by the rattlesnake. It began moving it’s head around looking for the sound. I froze again. Finally, to my relief it decided to slither off on past me. Oh, what a relieeeeeef it is. And, it was none too soon, moments after that encounter, I saw a jeep with a machine gun mounted on it, approaching the hill at a high rate of speed. I was able to report it in time to save the day.
