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Chapter 1: Arrival
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One Arrival "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can dofor your country. " ~John F Kennedy Sitting quietly looking out the window, I vaguely heard the pilm announce that we would be arriving in Columbus in fifteen minmes. It was a beamiful morning for flying~the sky was dear at our altitude; below I could see the douds looking like cotton neatly arranged in a surgeon 's tray. Occasionally there was a break, and the tops of the green pine trees and red, sandy roads showed dearly. The GI beside me woke and stretched. "You headed for Benning, kid?" the NCO asked. "Yes," I replied. I looked at the sergeant and noticed that he was young, probably not much over twenty, small and slim with a wispy, premature mustache. On his chest were two rows of ribbons, but the only one 1 recognized was the Purple Heart. He was probably two or three years younger than me, but since he was a buck sergeant and had been to Nam, he could can me "kid." "What are you going to do at Benning?" the sergeant asked. "I'm supposed to go to Officer Candidate School. You:" "I just got back from Nam, and I'm going to check in with my new unit before I go on leave." "Your new unit?" "I'm going to be an inStructor in Jump School. You goin' airborne?" "No, I don't think so. I've got to get through OCS first." "Yeah and that's a bitch I've heard, but so's jump school." At that moment the pilot announced that it was time to fasten seat belts, so we bmh did and became quiet. Again [ looked out the circular window and watched the plane descend through the cloud cover. As we came through the mist, I felt as though I were passing through some kind of mystical barrier in a science-fiction movie, and for some reason I had the urge TO bend down in my sear, draw my knees up, and put my head between chern. I felt rhe plane's wheels touch down, causing a momentary rush offear and excitement until the reassuring sound ofthe wheels rolling solidly on the asphalt caused me to sigh and relax. I had been drafted in January '69, right after I'd graduated from college and just as Nixon was inaugurated, and although I didn't have much faith in Nixon's campaign promise ofa secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, I thought the country's mood would change within a year or revolution would thunder in the sneets. So after I was drafted, I learned that I could volunteer for Officer Candidate School and delay my entry into the Army for four months. Given the four months for Basic and Advanced Individual Training and the six months of OCS, I could bide my time for months. long before my time was up, I expected the fighting would be over. I had decided not to go to Canada, not so much because I was afraid of losing my country bur mainly because of my grandfather, the first Jefferson Bowie Adams, the man for whom I had been named. Granddad was a veteran ofWorld War I and worked on (he railroad before he serried down on his ranch in Mariposa, Texas, to raise a few Herefords and a lot of hell with his neighbors. He was a curious combination ofsouthwestern independence and patriotism, spoke with pride about his military days. He had joined the cavalry before (he war broke out, and he would bring out his pictures of himself in uniform riding his favorite mount, Chief Bowles, named for the leader of the Cherokees in East Texas. Then he would tell war stories about the Argonne Forest and Belleau Wood. T hey still called them cavalry units then, even though horses weren't effective in war by then and were mainly ceremonial. So it was for Granddad [hat I, Jefferson Bowie Adams, [J, had decided to go to OCS, knowing that if Granddad's namesake hightailed it for Canada, his disgrace would Ix: toO great a burden for him to carry and for me to live with. I also wasn't sure what to think about the war in Vietnam. I had been raised to believe in my country and its leaders. I had read about military 2 Fort Broiling Btun [3.236.111.234] Project MUSE (2024...