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Forum nameLouis L'Amour Discussion Forum
Topic subjectRemembering a friend...Semper Fidel
Topic URLhttp://louislamour.com/dcforum/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=221&topic_id=759&mesg_id=759
759, Remembering a friend...Semper Fidel
Posted by Mike Shaffer, Sat Jun-13-20 07:50 PM
He died about a year ago. During the war in Viet Nam he joined the Marine Corp. He was a sniper...it affected him strangely. We'd be walking on a city street and an Asian gent would be walking toward us. He'd nod and say, "I used to shoot guys that looked like him." I'd hit him on the shoulder...hard. It didn't do a bit of good as he chuckled at my reaction. It was just a love tap to a Marine. He had a sick sense of humor to top it off and after learning more about his background it made sense. We started to write a book once, but got sidetracked by my editing of the story to make it sound like one voice, and never got back to it before he up and died on me. His daughter is a chip off the old block, but she's a whole lot sexier. Cary was passed over for a promotion on the railroad and quit because he was the best and most qualified choice, but it was a time of the railroad making up for past racial grievances. Cary couldn't agree that he should have to pay for the mistakes made before he was hired. He found work as a car salesman and made it last until he could retire. He always had a gift of gab and put it to good use. He was grandfathered in, but I couldn't convince him to stick around a couple more years for his 30 years...it made a ton of difference to his retirement income, but it didn't change his mind. Once a Marine always a Marine.