Airborne

The morning I stopped getting up for Reveille
My platoon sergeant
A fat man in charge of the motorpool
Came into the hooch
Yelling at me to get up
I was awake but pretending to be asleep
He stood by my bunk and shouted
Then
He kicked me
Like most of us there
I slept with my rifle next to me
And I came up out of the bunk fast
Rifle in hand and yelling
He ran out of the hooch
I put down the rifle
And got back in my bunk
Waiting for whatever was coming next

A few minutes later
They came in
The Colonel
The Captain
The Sergeant Major
The First Sergeant
And the fat little fucker that had kicked me
There were others behind them
But they didn’t matter
I was ordered out of my bunk
I got out
They had taken my rifle
I didn’t mind about that
The Colonel said that I was in serious trouble now
I told them that I only did what I had been trained to do
I told them that I had been asleep
In Vietnam
In a dangerous place
And that while I was sleeping
I was attacked
I was kicked
And I had reacted instinctively
By grabbing my rifle
Yelling loud
But all I saw
Was a fat man running away
So I put down the rifle
And went back to sleep
Then I reminded them that this morning
Was the day I am longer in the Army
I had given them my notice
But that I still retained the right
To defend myself
The Colonel asked the fat man if he had kicked me
He was too shocked and stupid to deny it
In front of many witnesses
He admitted his attack
I was ordered to remain in the hooch
They left en-masse
And they took my M-16 with them
I lay on my bunk
All I could think was
Well…here we go again..
It begins

I was the talk of the company
Some of the guys thought I was cool
Taking a stand against the war
Most of us over there were draftees
Sent involuntarily to face the dragon
And counting backwards to the day
That we would re-enter the world
Reclaim our lives
I wasn’t one of those guys though
I had volunteered for the army
I had volunteered for Vietnam
I wanted to see the truth of it for myself
And I had seen the truth
For myself
I didn’t feel that I was a part of some big protest movement
Just that I had seen what I came to see
The truth of the place
And
Me

Meanwhile I was confined to the hooch
Which was a tent with a wooden floor
There were thousands of them all over the post
The post held twenty thousand men
Engineers
Artillery
Communications
Airborne Infantry
Hundreds of helicopters
Mechanics
Cooks
Doctors
Clerks
A city made for occupation and war
Surrounded by wire

At night I would leave the hooch
Walk out to the perimeter
Meet my friends
Smoke pot
Talk about everything
About home
About the war
About music
I heard about Frisco
Los Angeles
Cincinnati
Cleveland
And lots of other places
I never talked about home
I had stopped writing home by then
And didn’t think about it much
All I could think about was where I was
And what I had to do

Sometimes after getting high
I would walk back to the company
And head for the day room
On the way there I would stop by the mess hall
We had Mexican cooks
And they were cool people
They give me sandwiches and chocolate milk
Then I would watch them make bread
Huge silver bowls filled with flour
And hundreds of little bugs trying to crawl out
But sliding down the smooth sides of the bowel
Destined to be eaten
The cooks laughed when I pointed this out
Don’t worry kevin…they said
Eat your sandwich
I did

There was one guy working with them
That wasn’t a Mexican
They called him Airborne
Johnny Airborne
I called him that too
Even though I knew it wasn’t his name
But I did get to know his story
He was with the 82nd
He was combat infantry
Listed as Missing in Action
But he was hiding out with our cooks
Living in their hooch
Working in their kitchen
You could tell that he had gone crazy
But it didn’t matter
He was happy where he was
And he was never going back
He’d seen too much
Done too much
And he finally
Had seen and done
Enough

One day the cooks got a new sergeant
The old one had done his time
Got his promotion
And was going stateside
Happy with the promise of a better pension
A lot of the lifers went to Nam
Just to get the rank
So they could retire on better money
So off he went
And in came the new guy
He confronted Johnny Airborne
Airborne wasn’t on his roster
Airborne wouldn’t tell him his real name
All Airborne had to say for himself was
I am Johnny Airborne
All the cooks would say was
He is Johnny Airborne
The new Mess Sergeant was angry
He told Johnny Airborne that
In the morning
He would get to the bottom of it all
Then he left
Went to the hooch where the company sergeants lived
And got drunk
And went to sleep
To dream about promotion I guess

I was in the day room
Sleeping under the pool table
Some cats were playing pool
And listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival
There were ten or fifteen of us there
Some stoned
All laughing
Except me
It was late
I was asleep
But I have always been a light sleeper
So I heard the commotion when it happened
Now the day room is just another hooch
Where you can hang out and play pool
A gift from a thoughtful army
To the enlisted men
There was a door either end of the single room
That each led out to the company compound
Well one door flew open
I was instantly awake
All I saw were feet
One pair running
I heard Airborne’s voice ask
Do I smell like gasoline?
Then lots of voices saying
Fuck yeah man
What the fuck did you do?
But Airborne was already running out the other door
There was yelling and screaming coming from outside
Bells were ringing
Commotion and panic in the air
Suddenly the door flew open again
Officers and sergeants
Some in their underwear
Came barging in
Yelling
Who just ran in here?
Who was that?
Nobody knew
He went that that way
Then one of them saw me
Lying under the pool table
Who is that?
Come out of there!
I came out
How long has he been there?
They asked
Everybody answered almost at once
All night
They looked at me
They smelled me
They asked what I was doing
Hiding under the pool table
I wasn’t hiding
I was sleeping
What did you see?
Feet

They knew it wasn’t me
But they knew that I knew
But then they left
In a hurry
In pursuit of the unknown arsonist
The sergeant’s hooch was ablaze
No one was hurt
But they knew that someone wanted someone
Dead
Before he left
The Sergeant Major looked at me
And told me to get back to my hooch
I was still under house arrest
For quitting the army
And threatening a sergeant
With my M-16
I went back
Laid down
And thought to myself
This is a crazy place

The next day
Most of the sergeants kept a low profile
They would hang around together
Mostly in the mess hall
When they did venture out
They were friendly but distant
The Mess Sergeant didn’t even hassle
Johnny Airborne
When he brought them coffee
There was a strange peace in the air
The sergeant’s hooch was rebuilt
But moved a little further from the Officers hooch
Than it was before
I was asleep when I was gently shaken
I opened my eyes
It was the Sergeant Major
He wanted to talk with me
He spoke softly
He wanted me to come outside
Alone
He had something he wanted to talk about
I told him he was fucking nuts
If he thought I was going anywhere
In the middle of the night
Alone
With him or anyone else
I reminded him that I was now unarmed
And that frankly
I didn’t trust him
Again he said that he just wanted to talk
I told him that I would not go out there
Alone
He said ok
I could bring somebody with me
But that it was a private conversation
I agreed

I woke up my buddy Vince
He was six and a half feet tall
From New York City
He had wild animals tattooed on his arms
I told him what was happening
And that I wanted him with me
He got up
Got dressed
Armed himself
And we went outside
The Sergeant Major was waiting…Alone
We walked a short distance
While Vince waited
I know you didn’t try to kill anyone
The Sergeant Major said
But I know that you know who did
I kept quiet and listened
We don’t want any trouble here
He said
We all just want to do our time and go home
The sergeants want this shit over
They didn’t sign up for this
What’s this got to do with me?
I asked
I’m not in the army anymore… remember?
I am here with a proposition
And I chose you because you came to me
First of all
And I know that you will do the right thing
This will help you too
If you help us
I won’t tell you anything
I said
I don’t want you to
He said
Then what is it that you want
I asked
Then he told me

In order to get back to normal
They were going to announce
That if whoever did this turned themselves in
They would be given a medical discharge
And sent home immediately
They would appoint an officer to investigate
And when he had determined
Who had done this
That person would be on their way
Home
No trial
Hospital
Then home
What they wanted from me
Was to tell the person responsible
That they were telling the truth
Would I do that for them?
Are you telling the truth
I asked
Goddammit M......
He said
We want that fucker out of here
That’s all
Will you talk to him?
Yes
I said
I would
But I couldn’t guarantee that he would believe it
He shook my hand and walked away
I told Vince what was said
Vince asked what I was going to do
Go see Johnny Airborne
I said

We went to the Mexican hooch
And we sat with Airborne and the Mexicans
And told them what had happened
The Mexicans were all for it
Airborne asked if I thought they were telling the truth
I told him they were scared
It was the Headquarters Company
Of an Engineer battalion
And that yes I thought they were telling the truth
But that he would have to make up his own mind
Take his own chances
Then Vince and I left
We smoked a joint outside the hooch
This place is crazy
Vince said
Yeah
I said
Then we went inside
I lay down on my bunk
I couldn’t wait for morning
The next day the announcement was made
Everyone knew
The offer was real
They appointed a lieutenant to investigate
There must have been fifty people
Lined up outside his office
All confessing to being the arsonist
All demanding to be sent home
Or they would try again
And again

When Airborne walked in to face the lieutenant
And told his story
The search was over
He was gone that day
And I never saw him again
Or ever knew his real name