Snakes and the U.S. Army

Another Stodghill Says So blog:



Apparently the first thing the United States Army does when picking out a site for a new camp is make sure the area is infested with snakes. Oddly enough, during my six years in the service during two wars I rarely saw a snake. I have no regrets about that.
Only one unfortunate fellow in my company was ever bitten by a snake. The biter was a huge rattler down at Camp Polk. The man was bitten about 10 o’clock one night and was back standing reveille at six the next morning. Life is really rotten when you can’t get a day off for something like that.
One of my more interesting experiences concerning snakes came the day my National Guard outfit arrived at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin for two weeks of summer camp. The squad leaders and platoon sergeants were ushered into a room and warned about the rattlesnakes that apparently were in every nook and cranny of the camp. This, like all Army lectures, went on and on until those with a brain were ready to scream out in protest and even those lacking a brain had received the message.
When the merciful end finally grew near we were told that all of us would be issued first aid equipment in case one of our men, or even – God forbid – one of us were actually bitten by a snake. The first aid equipment when it was handed to each man on the way out the door consisted of a single-edge razor blade.
During our fourteen days at McCoy I never saw a snake, nor did I hear about anyone else seeing one. A few of us did, however, see what must have been the granddaddy of all lizards. This fellow, who was close to three feet long, scurried across our area just after we had dug slit trenches in which we would spend the night. As we watched open-mouthed he leaped into the hole belonging to John Oliver. Fortunately Oliver was not in the hole at the time, but from a short distance away he cried, “Lizard, you just got yourself a home!”
Late that night a young soldier named Lester Gene Christy and I were standing guard in a deep foxhole dug especially for that purpose. Actually I was standing guard and Christy was sleeping. Before dark we had spread leaves far out from the hole in all directions in case an unwelcome visitor approached. Sure enough, something came slithering through the leaves. I jabbed Christy with the butt of my rifle and said, “Get up. Something’s coming this way.”
Never, even in months of infantry combat with Germans carrying cut-throat razors roaming around on patrol, have I ever seen anyone leap so high or take off running as fast as Christy did that night.
So what was slithering through the leaves? I have no idea because it turned tail and departed almost as fast as Christy.

A three foot long lizard in Wisconsin? That must have been the last one of a rare species. Moose, bear, wolves, bobcats, snakes, lots of cows, but I have never heard of anyone else seeing a big lizard in this state. I just checked in the wildlife book and it could have been a skink or salamander.

Carol

Whatever it was, it was huge. And ugly, very ugly. Never saw anything its equal even at Polk in Louisiana.

Snakes have always been my worst fear. Slithering, clamy, sneaky and ready to strike. Of course that could apply to some humans I know.

Abe F. March wrote:

Snakes have always been my worst fear. Slithering, clamy, sneaky and ready to strike. Of course that could apply to some humans I know.

I'll give an amen to that Abe. Dick I love your stories about life experiences. At age 83 you have lieved through and seen so much. Thanks for sharing.

Abe F. March wrote:

Snakes have always been my worst fear. Slithering, clamy, sneaky and ready to strike.

I hate snakes--they give me nightmares.

Don,
your description of the CO nearly jumping out of his skin I can relate to.
Often people will think it funny to play a joke on another using an object, like a snake. It may be funny to them but it can be a lasting nightmare for the other person. Knowing my fear of snakes, if someone knowingly did that to me, my revenge would be taken on the snake that played the joke.

When we moved to Texas when my husband was stationed there with the Marines, the first lecture he went to was a warning about coral snakes, that a wife had picked up what she thought was a child's jump rope but it was a coral snake and she died from its bite.

So we watched carefully for these snakes but saw none. However, a horned toad watched me hang up the wash, cock roaches loved my clean kitchen, black widow spiders settled in between the screen and the front door, and we saw a few huge spiders.

One day when we lived in South Carolina, my husband frantically began going through the utensil drawer (and he never cooked). He grabbed a suitable utensil and carefully picked up a small rattle snake from the dining room floor and took it outside.

Carol

Coral snakes are small, but they are members of the fer de lance family so their bite works on the nervous system, not the bloodstream. They are probably the deadliest of all snakes in North America. There is a harmless snake that looks very much like them.
At Polk we were told to keep an eye peeled for the corals. This was useless advice because, unlike Don, most of us kept an eye peeled for all snakes. And the black widows, the tarantulas, the scorpions, the alligators, the wild boars, the packs of razorback hogs roaming the area and a few other unpleasant creatures. It was, and still is, a lovely part of the country.

Hmmm ... I think I will pass on visiting that spot, Dick.

And Dick, don't forget that their were cottonmouth moccassins and copperheads as well as coral snakes.

I had a great uncle who had a small ranch in far East Texas, near where you "invaded" the state as you mentioned on another thread. He assured us that there were no snakes on his property, yet I once saw a copperhead slither across a trail in front of me, and at the very moment he was pronouncing those reassurances, as we sat around a campfire beside his fishing hole, when my brother sent a flashlight beam over the water we saw several sets of two tiny yellow reflections peering toward us.

Ann

I remember, Ann. One day we were hiking along when we came to a cottonmouth relaxing on a large stone in a creek. An officer began shooting at it with his pistol. That proved a lot more dangerous to us than the cottonmouth. They are nasty creatures, though. So are the copperheads and the several types of rattlers at Polk. Then there is that Cajun food. The armadillos are nice, of course.

D. J. (Don) Stephens wrote:

Spiders have always been my nemesis.

I don't know about armadillos being so nice. They rooted up my mums in a garden I kept several years ago. My husband and I had bought a bit of land just north of town, and cleared a part of it to build a house. The armadillos, racoons, and jackrabbits were not about to be evicted, and my husband once found a 'possum in the shed where we kept the garbage bags. We had been wondering how our neighbor's cat was getting inside that shed, because hubby had been upset over the holes with tooth marks in the bags whenever he needed to move them to the street to be picked up. That 'possum was no cat! We did see a relative of the coral snake a few times the first year - king snakes - larger than the coral, but harmless. Harmless or not, I was glad when they moved away. The racoons were my favorite. They would come up on our patio at night, and peer in to watch the alien invaders to their home. Until we saw the first one, we thought our son was imagining the "tigers" outside.


Ann

Those raccoons are funny guys. Hard to discourage them when they have their mind set on taking over your property. Ann, you'd better read Betty's armadillo story and you will love the little guys. If they think they are in danger they roll themselves into a ball and that's funny to watch, although I hated to see them frightened. At least they are not nuts like the wild boars. On a hike at Polk we were charged by one, and charging 100 men carrying rifles is not a smart move. We were laughing at him and he didn't like that at all so he turned, snorting, and strolled away.

Here you go, Don. Just don't get caught in the cross fire!

Zada,

Marvelous!