On the deck, Nadaya stood frozen like a petrified fowl.
The high-speed transport ship that had just exploded and sunk was not far from him; he saw everything that happened on board.
The soldiers that were thrown and torn apart, the broken hull, the propeller sticking out of the water at the stern, and the soldiers dropping into the ocean one after another, crying for help, all deeply impacted his fragile heart.
"Nadaya, come and put on a life jacket,"
Blais pulled at the still dazed Nadaya. Because of underestimating the enemy and complacency, the originally thought-to-be-safe landing had turned perilous. The US soldiers had made plans to go ashore to entertain themselves in the Chan Country and had not bothered to wear the cumbersome life jackets.