Four ranks wide, thirty deep. He could feel the fear of every one of them. Feel it crawling up his back, pressing through the seams of his armor, working through every gasket and seal. It wouldn’t last long, a mayfly… Continue Reading
When I was young my brother left for the war. He died several months after in action. He was a hero by all standards. Incredibly jealous was I, but I was born wrong and would forever be denied. A year… Continue Reading
The muscular barbarian surveyed the circle of bodies around him, and spat in the gore-soaked sand. “Is that the best you can do?” he roared at the distant figure atop the largest of the tombs that dotted the desert in… Continue Reading
INCOMING. INCOMING. INCOMING, said Giant Voice. PFC Tullis made himself small in the low-slung concrete bunker alongside the 105mm howitzer position on the eastern edge of the FOB and prayed Lord Jesus please get me out of this country alive.… Continue Reading
A ringing phone on a desk in Washington DC prompted a call to Virginia and so on. If given a shape, the calls would have looked like the ace of diamonds turned on its side, the first guy’s phone at… Continue Reading
It was the best of pies. It was the worst of pies. I have to admit the pastry could not be faulted. I actually enjoyed it. Then as soon as I bit into the pie I found that it was… Continue Reading
The phone rang at 2:21 a.m. I will never forget it. One doesn’t forget moments like that. I had grown accustomed to your calls coming at odd hours, but we talked just yesterday. Even in my slumber, I knew you… Continue Reading
More than forty years, now, and if I knew how to draw I could draw you every detail of the scene. Maybe it was that look he had about him of the young James Coburn, and his perfect timing. Must… Continue Reading
I finish tightening the final clamp securing Sara to the rack, and step back. The light summer sundress clings lovingly to her figure just like I remembered, but all the holes and dirt smears take away from her attractiveness rather… Continue Reading
Half of the hysterical locals were convinced we’d come to do a My Lai on their village; the rest just wanted our rations. Conditions were typically deplorable. Years in the unremitting shit of war will do that. Everybody in the company… Continue Reading