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MARCHING HOMEWARD BOUND

November 11, 2016 by
homeward bound

image via DG Studios 2016

One step after another aims for homeward bound.

Homeward bound is a promise you hear when you’re far from home.

Service people hear it best.

“You’ll be home by Christmas (or Easter, Thanksgiving.”)

Make that next Christmas, or Easter, or Thanksgiving.

No matter what you hear from the top, soldiers keep marching, sailors keep sailing, and flyers keep flying.

And they aim for homeward bound.

What happens next?

Most often people who go into the armed forces and come out the other end intact lay low and carry on.

Until they hit their fifties.

By then they’ve been RIF’d out, downsized, or fired; they’ve been let go, divorced, or ignored.

This is the time military service stands out as the highlight of their lives.

Get that hat, wear that t-shirt, buy that gun.

Be somebody, or at least who you once were.

Veteran reflections grow brighter with the years, whether you were a jungle running, tunnel crawling, door kicker, or a paint chipper on a can off shore, or a bomber refueler on a base a thousand miles from live fire.

If you served at all you were in the shit, just keep it down around a gathering of vets. Not all of them appreciate the REMF as much as you.

The alert veteran watches how people move, where they move to.

Oregon’s boomer blogger watches. So should you.

John Prine sang it out in his song:

While digesting Reader’s Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I’d tell her how good I feel.
[Chorus:]
But your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
They’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don’t like killin’
No matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
“If you join the Christmas club
We’ll give you ten of them flags for free.”
Well, I didn’t mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife’s forehead.
[Chorus]Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn’t see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I’ll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said…

“But your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.
We’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don’t like killin’
No matter what the reason’s for,
And your flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven any more.”

Stand up. Stand down. Happy Veteran’s Day.

Respect yourself.

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About David Gillaspie

I am a writer. This is my blog story day by day.

Comments

  1. Mark Mullins says
    November 11, 2016 at 8:46 am

    Wow! Spoken like a vet, quite the intro to a strikingly relevant song. Of course we all respect our vets, doing the shit work makes you a hero to someone. Soldier on !

    • David Gillaspie says
      November 11, 2016 at 12:45 pm

      I keep telling my wife the same thing. I’ve always thought people who did things I’d have to do if they didn’t heroes. My personal heroes.

      One man I met, a pilot, had a brother who was a LRRP in Vietnam. Long Range Recon Patrol. The guy stood differently, walked differently, and it was easy to not want to be where ever he stood or walked in the war.

      He was very calm, spooky calm, like he was someplace else but didn’t mind being where he was. Tough trick to handle from a cold start.