Lessons From The Meanest Duck

One of my favorite stories of my Dad’s is about his time in Vietnam. It involves a duck. A boa-constrictor. Oh, and a few observations.

Around April 1967, my father was a Naval dentist, attached to the Marines, stationed in KhanSan. He’d fixed teeth, do occasional triage, even kept one man alive in a foxhole for three days with nothing but a dental kit. Always, right before patrols were about to go out, there’d be a spike in emergency tooth-aches. The hardest part, for the medical teams, was to tell these boys that they were fine and ship’em off, some never to return.

So much death, you understand why MASH (the movie, not really the show) could possibly exist. Anything to break the tension, take your mind off the potentials, help alleviate the stress of the daily.

One day, after two day patrol,  a Marine Recon patrol comes back, bearing what could only be described “the biggest mother-fucking snake” ever seen. Like anaconda size big.

Big.

This motley group of 6 or 7 fatigued teens, proudly hoisted their prize, as they should. Again, according to Dad, it was one big snake.

And it was their unit’s new mascot.

Housing such a magnificent creature was the Unit’s focus for the next day or two. Bamboo cut, cage crafted. And to feed it, not a problem. This was Vietnam, so procuring a edible creature or two wasn’t much of a stretch.

Enter the duck.

It was a big duck, duck-wise, but compared to the snake? No contest.

Probably unceremoniously shoved into the snake’s lair, someone leashed the duck so it couldn’t fly around and elude being dinner for the prized mammoth snake.

That’s thoughtful.

And everybody went to bed, congratulating themselves on their new mascot, one huge mean-looking mother-fucking snake.

Next morning: Duck alive. Huge-ass snake? Dead.

It seems the snake was pecked to death by the duck.

Of course you know where this is headed…

The Duck became the unit’s new mascot. While they had lost the huge, they figured they more than made it up by gaining the meanest mother-fucking Duck in all of Vietnam.

(I actually spent a good amount of time looking for the banner/badge/patch of this company. I couldn’t find it. Not even a picture or story. Know anyone who might? Please forward and have them contact me. My dad only had a Super-8 of the snake. Go figure.)

The Take-aways? Here’s what we can learn from the Meanest Duck episode:

• Don’t assume. Huge Snake. Smaller Duck. Duck kicked snake’s ass (or pecked it) to death. Wait to see one’s actions before you judge an individual’s performance or worth.
• Size doesn’t matter. Will to live, drive to succeed, sheer tenacity can kick Mammoth’s ass.
• Bet the money on the one that refuses to stay down. This could be in the bullet point above, but it’s worth seeing it twice.
• Embrace change, and accept new and different.  It might be better. Sure the snake is a cool icon, but a killer duck? Awesome. Memorable enough for repeated story-telling and a life living decades beyond.

So there it is. Don’t assume. Be the one that refuses to stay down. Size isn’t a factor. Embrace Change.

Remember The Meanest Duck in Vietnam.

2 Responses to “Lessons From The Meanest Duck”

1. Hiromi Stone says:

   May 24, 2010 at 3:38 PM

   I found you through the 7 sisters group on Linked in. I love this post, just read it to my husband. Something about it just tickles me pink. Thanks for making me laugh.
2. betsy says:

   May 24, 2010 at 4:05 PM

   Thank you so much, I’m tickled pink that you like the post. Always nice to hear your work is being appreciated! Cheers