T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
Skateboard Soldier
Anonymous
This one comes to mind, especially with what's going
on in Iraq. My father
was in California, probably Travis, picking up a
load of marines headed for
Vietnam. He was in the back of the aircraft when he
spotted a young marine --
who couldn't have been older than 18 and looked like
a surfer from the area --
with a skate board.
He looked at him and said something like, "I don't
think you know where you're
going, you won't have much time for that thing when
you get to Vietnam. If you
don't stow it properly someone will get hurt if we
hit turbulence." Giving the
guy a hard time just to give him a hard time.
Only one week later, he was back in country. The
flight back to the states was
an air evac mission. My father walked up on the
plane through those clamshell
doors headed for the flight deck. He heard someone
holler out for him. When he
looked up, there was that same marine. He was
already headed back stateside
with both legs missing.
My father never gave those guys a hard time after
that.