Word: concertinas
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...Ngai province, long a Communist stronghold. The Koreans, members of the elite Blue Dragon brigade, had purposely positioned themselves in the open, hoping to draw the Communists down from the forested mountains for a set-piece battle. The Korean perimeter was in the shape of a valentine, laced with concertina wire and reinforced with concrete revetments. On the night of St. Valentine's Day, a North Vietnamese regiment of 1,500 men struck at the 254-man Korean company with everything up to 120-mm. mortars, which had been lugged down the mountains by pack elephants...
Near completion is "the Barrier," a ten-mile defense perimeter consisting of cleared fire lanes, minefields, 68 watchtowers and an encircling snare of concertina wire that, if stretched out, would measure 10,000 miles. Inside the Barrier is Camp Radcliff (named for the first Cavalryman to die in Viet Nam), where some 2,100 structures are abuilding. They range from wood-and-tin hutments (to "get the troops off the mud") to an elegant lumber-and-natural-rock mess hall that advertises itself as "the Red Hawk...
...accident itself is described in forceful, fearsome terms. "I heard a voice through a great cloud of agony and sickness," writes Welch. "The voice was asking questions. It seemed to be opening and closing like a concertina. The words were loud, as the swelling notes of an organ, then they melted to the tiniest wiry tinkle of water in a glass. I knew that I was lying on my back on the grass. I could feel the shiny blades on my neck. Bright little points glittered all down the front of the liquid man kneeling beside me. I knew...
Also on the program were the Concertina for String Quartet by Stravinsky and the Beethoven C-sharp Minor Quartet, Op. 131. The Stravinsky, written in 1920, is a little-heard work that was also scored for wind ensemble. It shows the influence of Russian folk-music, but its construction focuses on an effort to draw a rough, guttural sound from the instruments, and it demands a great deal of technical competence of the players. The Guarneri Quartet measured up in every way to its challenges, and provided a startling contrast to the Romanticism of the Brahms...
...first brothel quarter built exclusively for American soldiers in Viet Nam. Half finished, An Khe Plaza, as the sign at the M.P. gatehouse declares, or "Disneyland," as the G.I.s call it, is a 25-acre sprawl of "boum-boum parlors" built of concrete blocks and surrounded by coils of concertina barbed wire. Each parlor consists of a bar with eight cubicles opening off the back. Eventually there will be 40 parlors, bearing such rubrics as Paradise, Caravelle, Golden Hind, Hill Billy, Washington and the Moderate Tearoom...