Chronicles 1972 – Journey into Manhood

Thirty-five years ago yesterday I started an amazing journey into what would be the rest of my life. I was just nineteen when I stood in a snow storm at 4am in Hamilton Ohio, USA waiting for a bus to take me away to where, I thought then, I was to become a hero. At least that's what my Mother had told me I would be.

On that day I went from being a bigheaded, naive child to flying in a jet plane [I had not even seen one before] to a place I had only seen on a map, San Diego, California. Sixteen hours after boarding the plane I was in Boot Camp. Now this Midwestern boy would become a man. "Yeah Right." The man thing was a long way off, somewhere in time! That day was the day I started this trip; yes, it was a trip too! Although I didn't know what that meant then.

I keep using the word "Then". Was all this yesterday, last night, or will it happen tomorrow? All I know for certain is I was scared like never before, but nothing like I would be later! "Somewhere in Time" I had four younger brothers and they needed to be free, safe, and them damn Gooks were going to come to my house and hurt them and my Mother.

You see, we had to fight them there or they would be in the States raping our women and children. The best place to fight was in their country, said our Presidents Johnson and Nixon. After all, this is America and to die for her was the right thing to do! Them protesters were stupid and if we lost they would be like the Gooks standing on our Courthouse lawn, taking away our freedoms, our way of life. Yep we had to kill to them before they got us!

Well, before I slip too far away into the Political Bullshit, and dogma of the day, I'll get back to Boot Camp. I had even started a group of about six small beard hairs those were not to last this day! Yes, they were gone like the oozing breakfast they made us eat, soon lost out in the morning sun.

Well, I didn't lose mine until the strange birds [Seagulls] ate the vomit from the guy next to me. I reckon they were waiting to swoop down and that damn laughing sound they made was about all I could handle this day! Yeah right! I was about to learn I could do and handle just about anything, everything in the soon to be coming years!

I still hate the sounds of Seagulls, they’re like them Gooks, like the Japs and Krauts my Grandfather told me about, scavengers that only wanted to kill and destroy the American way then kill us all! I was going to do my best to kill them all first.

I have indeed become a cynical, sad, angry old man. I hope to explain why I feel the way I do now in 2005 in the coming days as I write this story of why I am lost somewhere in time.