“I was in a rifle company.
Joined the marines when I was eighteen.
I had to go.
The army was fixing to draft me.
Back when they had that lottery system, my birthday was number one.
And hell, I’d already had my physical.
I was 1-A.
So I knew I was gone.
The lady who ran the draft board in town called my mama and told her I had about two weeks to join something if I wanted to, because after that the army would get me.
So I joined the marines.
I figured they were the toughest thing going.
My old man, he … he really resisted me going.
Both of them did.
It was getting worse and worse all the time.
I guess you were over there before I was.
He was in World War II.
He stayed in for four years.
Walked all the way across Europe with the infantry, was wounded once.
He knew what it was like to have to fight with a rifle.
He taught me how to shoot.
We’d hunt squirrels with a .22.
Shoot em in the head.
“He was in prison for a while.
A long time ago.
Twice.
“I was over there within six months.
Did it smell like something dead the whole time you were over there?
Same here.
I thought I’d never get out of there alive.
I couldn’t sleep for a long time.
I couldn’t sleep at all without a rifle next to me.
I was usually always the biggest so I usually always kept the M60.
Twenty-six pounds.
I loved that damned gun.
Kept it clean.
I could by God shoot it, too.”
– Larry Brown –
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Larry Brown (Photo by Susie James)