Road Trip

Taking off work tomorrow to drive down to Bushnell, FL, site of the state's national cemetery.  Veterans Day road trip.  Take about 2 and a half hours to get there.  Going to visit a friend.  Kid, really.  Originally from Iowa.  Never said a vulgar word in his life, not that I ever heard, except once.  He found this mongrel btich.  Belly fat with worms.  Mange all over.  He washed her and fed her.  Wasn't a hope in hell of keeping her alive but he never stopped trying.  He said poop, not shit; darn it, not damn it; what the frick, not the fuck.  Never called the enemy fuckers or sonsofbitches, just poor souls.  I hate that I had to kill one of those poor souls.  Blondest, most blue-eyed midwestern boy you've ever seen.  And he loved that puppy.    When she died he aked to bury her, wanted to erect a cross over her grave.  I said hell no.  Regulations, understand?  I already violated one by allowing him to keep the bitch.  That was the first and last time I ever heard him use a vulgar word:  I hate this fucking war.  So I'm going to sit by his grave and drink a Cherry Coke, his favorite drink.  It'll take app. 2 and a half hours to get there.  Don't know how long it will take me to get back.  Have a feeling I'll be making a few pull-overs and pit-stops.  I've been advised that I should make myself vulnerable.  Not keep everything inside all hard and tight.  So there it is.  I remember when he died yelling medic medic medic medic!  and hearing from somewhere corpsman up corpsman up corpsman up corpsman up!  and thinking what the hell are Marines doing around here?  Never did find out.  I still wonder if the Marine who needed a corpsman survived.  All I know for sure is that our Soldier who needed a medic didn't.  Good kid.  As the platoon sergeant I was called "daddy" because the platoon sergeant is the platoon daddy and he said when I grow up I want to be just like you, daddy.  So here's to tomorrow.  Thinking of brining a little picnic; tomato sandwich, chips, maybe an extra large sugar-cookie.  And I'll just chow and drink and remember him by just being there.  I always do it on Memorial Day but I feel like doing it this year on Veterans Day too.  Why not?  I got the PTO.  And I like taking a trip solo.  He wa a good kid.  I did let him bury that bitch.  No cross.  Though the squaron's chaplain said a prayer over her grave.  Know what?  His grave doesn't have a cross either.  Just a headmarker with his name and years of life.  Of them all I feel the worst about him.  Such a good kid.  That's what he was, a kid.  I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if he was a virgin.  How he ended up in the Army I never asked.  I didn't want to aggravate or upset him, had the sense that there as some kind of abuse that motivated him to get out of it by joining the Army.  Always had a soft spot for the babies.  Good kid.