AND BOBBYS FRIEND .. RUSSELL
Lilangelwolf's Challenge Write about how a veteran has touched your life...
.Within my family, many of my uncles were veterans.. I have cousins who are veterans... I have in-laws who are veterans.. and I have friends who are veterans. From all divisions of the military they have walked the walk, of the protector of my freedom.
Most of the uncles who were in service, joined because of financial hardships in this country. There was no work when they were in their teens, and as for school.. college.. they really had no time for it.. they were looking for work.
They were hungry.
I mean that literally folks.
Times were extremely hard then, for everyone.
All four of them lied about their age, and were either learning to be a sailor or hoping to become an airplane pilot, by the time they were 17 years of age.
All of them, save one, continued and signed back up several times for more duty time. This was all done at a time when we were not at war, or involved in a police action .. in other words. Viet Nam.
The one uncle who joined the Air Force, was good with his hands, and a perfectionist .. so he was put in the division which designed and sewed the parachutes .. he later was part of the Nasa program.. where he helped design and sew the parachutes for the Apollo missions.. ( Yeah it was really great! He was my show and tell at school many times!) One uncle who opted for the Navy after signing back on many times.. saw that he wanted no part of the Viet Nam fighting and he signed on with the Merchant Marines.. which he retired from at an early age ..
The other two uncles.. well they were not exactly angels.. they joined because it was either go to the military or go to jail.. lol.. so they became swabbies as they called it.
There are many people whom I know, that were in the action of the front lines during WWII and Viet Nam.. I figured out when I was quite young, that the ones who wanted to tell you all about it.. were never shot at. They were the ones who worked in the offices or the garage.. maybe a driver for an officer. The vets who do not speak much of it.. that usually shy away from speaking for any length of time about their experiences, are the ones whom I listen intently to. They are the ones who have had their lives irrevocably changed by the reality of war.
War means death .. pure and simple, with no way around the basic fact. When you are fighting in a war. You have to kill people. Or they will kill you.
So I thought long and hard about my choice and there has to be two of them. I can't write about one without adding the other to the story.
My uncle Billy was a "get out of jail free veteran". He liked to have a few beers with his buddies and then drive around .. very fast. He was not a fella who was real smart when he was drinking, .. and he was constantly getting caught .. driving very fast while over the legal level of alcohol in his system for a 15 year old, is something the authorities frown greatly upon.. especially if your a belligerent drunk kid, who wants to fight.
After he had been a constant visitor to the cross bar motel.. and had a personal relationship with the circuit judge.. the judge took pity on him and his mother ( my granny) and gave him the choice of Navy chow or Penitentiary chow at the ripe old age of 17. The choice was not a difficult one. This all took place before the Viet Nam action started, and he actually seemed to enjoy the traveling around the world, collecting a truly stellar collection of tattoos.
His friend Bobby on the other hand.. straightened up and graduated high school. He got a good job at a new manufacturing plant, that had just fired up in the area, and got married .. to a beautiful lady, and they had a baby girl.. He was a really content young man..
Then he was drafted.
My uncle was up for resigning at the time that Bobby was drafted. Uncle Billy came home and Bobby went to Viet Nam. Bobby is not a very big guy.. he just made the height and weight requirements to be inducted. He is a blonde and has one of those cutie pie faces with the dimples and blue eyes. Since he was small and quick..with good eyesight and a deer hunters hearing ability.. he became what we now know as a Tunnel Rat.
He was the fella that when they came upon a village with known enemy activity.. they usually found a tunnel they used, to move around quietly, and to hide from the Marines. They were known for their booby traps and believing that if they gave their life killing an American soldier.. they would be given much in the afterlife. They actually put bombs on their children, and sent them out crying to the GI's, When the GI would pick them up .. the bomb would explode. This enemy had nothing they would not sacrifice to kill an American soldier, well really.. you just had to be an American to be their target.
So Bobby was the point guy when it came to checking out a tunnel for VC before the rest of the platoon entered.
When Bobby came home... he was no longer Bobby. He was a man without a future. He was a man who could not stand to be awake and aware of others without medication. He jumps at every small sound. He does not stand upright any more. He is in a semi crouch most of the time and his hands are always ready to cover his major organs and his face at any sound ,and usually they are shaking.
He lost his wife.. his children grew up without ever really knowing him.. simply because he is afraid to have them in the house with him at night when he sleeps fitfully. He has flashbacks and his sweet wife took off one night with the children.. no clothes.. no money.. just grabbed the kids and took off running down the street.. She, nor he, has ever told us exactly what happened.. I don't really want to know.
He is on full disability from the military. He has never worked at public work again.
While in Viet Nam, Bobby met a guy from the same area where we live in Arkansas, by the name of Russell. They hooked up as hillbilly buddies, and have been really tight since that time in their life. This guy is a really sharp fella. He is so sharp that he was taken into the Green Berets.. a very skilled and very dangerous person in the military. These are the fellas who are called into those secret little missions to rescue someone .. or maybe take out a anti tank gun when they can't get to it any other way. They kill first and never ask questions. They are trained to carry out orders.. the most important thing is to carry out the orders they are given.. and never ask questions. They are the military trained killing machines.. with all the skills it takes to be a lethal weapon just by breathing.
Russell came home and he was not Russell any more either. He astonishes me sometimes.. He is a really big guy.. with red hair and a southern drawl that you could cut with a knife. He seems to be one of the slowest moving, and slightly goofy, nice guys I have ever met. Until he gets pissed. I have seen him stand flatfooted right next to a guy who was well on his way to making him pass the calm sweet guy point, and with no effort at all, it seemed on Russells part, jump straight up and kick the guy in the head and knock him out cold!
It would be okay if that was where he would stop.. but it is not.. after he knocks them down he then proceeds to step two.. that is to break their neck.
Literally.
He is also on medications.. and he has never been able to return to public work.
He still carries a knife in his boots. He wears boots and fatigues .. year round. He has been known to walk in his sleep and they have found him in some strange places.. in cellars.. one time on the water tower..
He moves often.. to be trained as intensively as he was.. they build these guys egos to the point of them believing they are invincible .. and now he just feels inadequate to the job of living without war.
He has married finally, about 5 years ago.. she keeps him sane he says.. I say.. she is a brave woman with a lot of love for him to take on the challenge of living life, post war with a veteran Green Beret, who survived two tours in Viet Nam.
Bobby has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and Russell came to Bobby when he came home to stay.. so I now have the both of them in my life. My Uncle Billy passed away when I was 26 years old from a heart defect that they never detected in the service, when he was 37. And Bobby and Russell .. well.. they are always there for me.. all I need do is say I need something and they are on it! So I am very careful about what I ask for!
The way they have touched my life in the most profound way .. was they showed me.. without ever really saying too much about it..
that war is hell
War is about one thing. People killing other people.
It takes bright young human beings and turns them into empty shells .. sort of like it takes their past AND their future, and just throws it away.
They also showed me the loyalty that comes to people when they live through something like that .. together.
They never .. ever turn away from another veteran. No matter the need. They will pull together and make it happen some how.
They are more family to me than blood kin is for the most part. They don't talk very long about a subject if it is serious. They simply can't understand why people spend so much time talking about problems. To these two that is a waste of time and energy, the way they see life is if there is a problem.. you just go out and fix what is wrong.. or eliminate the problem causer.
They do not put up with a whole lot of dumb stuff.. and that has rubbed off on me recently, in a big way!
I am blessed that I had Bobby and Russell fighting to keep me free.
As are all of you.
They gave us their past and their future, so that we might not have to give ours up.
Please pray for those who are now in Iraq. I pray for no more men who were so infused with surviving and winning a war that they are empty shells who have no idea how to live without it.
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