thing, you come back, everybody leaves you alone.”
“That?s about what I?m doing now,” I said.
“That?s what I mean, you?re perfect for CRIP. We need people like you.”
I?m getting a little pissed. “What?s in this for me, Lieutenant? Just sticking my ass out there to get
whacked off for twelve more months? Shitt”
He says, “So what?s back home? You work eight hours, sleep eight hours. Shit, Sergeant, all you got
left is eight hours a day to live. Tell me this isn?t better than bowling.”
I told him I?d think about it and I got shacked up for two days and went back down to the squad.
The 347th day: We had this kid, a replacement, his first time on the line. I don?t even remember his
name. Anyway, we?re rushing this hooch and there?s a lot of caps going off and the kid twists his
ankle and down he goes and he starts screaming. We all just stay down and all I?m thinking, as many
times as I told this kid, “You go down, keep your mouth shut no matter how bad you?re hurt,” and
he?s losing it all.
They zero in on him but Doc gets to him first and he?s dragging this kid by the feet, trying to get him
behind something, away from the fire.
I hear the round hit. It goes phunk, like that.
I was hoping it was the kid but no such hick. Doc took one round, dead center.
Then the kid freaks out and runs for it and they just cut him to pieces too.
What a waste, what a goddamn awful fucking waste.
Later on, the GE?s come in with their body bags. Doc is lying beside a tree. He looks like he?s taking
a nap and I?m sitting beside him and this guy comes up with the bag and plops it down beside Doc
and zips it open.
God, how I hate that sound. I hate zippers.
“Don?t put that on him,” I say, and I grab that goddamn green garbage bag. “Don?t put that fuckin?
bag on him.”
“Hey, easy, pal, okay,” the Gunner says. “He?s gone. We lost him. Let them take him back.”
You can?t cry, you know. Nobody cries up here. You cry, everybody thinks you?re losing it. Doc had
eight days. Eight fucking days to go. All that time, all that experience. All stuffed in a fucking garbage
