Sa Dec appears in a recollection of a mine blast that shows how a single step could leave one soldier grievously wounded while those nearby escaped injury. The unnamed narrator’s account makes the place a marker of wartime danger and survival by chance.

A Combat Memory

While waiting with Bon near a gas station, the narrator recalls an incident outside Sa Dec. A point man stepped on a Bouncing Betty, a mine that first made a small pop as it bounced and then exploded. The narrator was two men behind him and was unharmed.

Consequences and Significance

The blast blew off the point man’s testicles, but he survived. The narrator calls that survival the worst part, emphasizing the injury’s enduring cost rather than treating the explosion as a cleanly fatal event. Sa Dec is not otherwise described here; its significance lies in anchoring this memory of how proximity to danger did not determine who bore its consequences.