The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59418 Message #2507313
Posted By: Rapparee
03-Dec-08 - 09:48 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
Well, Red Rivers did a no-no at the Legion this evening. Seems like the talk was gettin' around to "What I did in The War" when ol' Red made a big mistake. A real downer for everyone.
He told the truth. He said, "Hell, I sat on my ass at Ft. Leonard Wood as a Chaplain's Assistant. Spent two an' a haff years diggin' splinters outa my butt all day and drinkin' 3.2 in the PX beer garden at night."
Well, as you can imagine the Hovel was in an immediate uproar. Not since the Beer Tank Car ran dry has there been such a mess. Grown men and woman, some of whom could toss a Brammer Bull a hundred feet without breakin' a sweat, were down on their knees pleading with Red to tell the truth. "Say it warn't so, Red!" pleaded Bronco Phillips, who works lining railroad cars by hand all day. "No, no, not that! That's horrible, a War Crime!" screamed Daisy Mae Kolodjizki, a former Marine who landed on Iwo Jima in the first wave, the only woman Marine to serve there.
But Red was adamant. He would not admit to wiping out an entire Viet Cong battalion with his bare hands and a pocket knife with a broken blade. No, he was never in combat. No, he never called artillery fire down on his own position to prevent being overrun. No, his only medals were the National Defense Service Medal and the Good Conduct Ribbon, and he admitted he was lucky to get those.
Strong men wept and stronger women wailed their laments to the mountains. But finally it had to be admitted that Red Rivers, voted just last month "Legionnaire Most Likely", never had and probably never would.
When I left he was sitting there alone, mumbling about DD Forms and mimeographing hymns, never again to find himself a hale fellow well-met, never again to be a real part of the Idaho Legion. Sitting there stripped of his Legion honors and worse, he had actually Told The Truth.
A strong man, humbled by his own words.
I took my hat and quietly closed the door behind me.