L.arge A.rmada of 'M.azing B.attle-S.heep
1st Lieutenant, Keith "Bronco" Sanders. Sioux City, Iowa - a sheep.
"Feels like it's been raining for weeks. I can't remember the last time I took a meal without rainwater spoiling the chow. Makes you wanna puke. Don't seem like it never rained this much back home in Iowa. It does something awful to the boys' spirits.
One of my closest friends in the battalion - a good kid from San Antonio, went by the name of Parker - he got exploded last week. Me and him, we used to talk about things. Talk about things back home. Wives, girlfriends. We'd guess who was going to the World Series, stuff like that. We don't get news like that out here on the trail. Anything to pass the time. Me and Parker, we were getting pretty tight. But, I can tell you one thing - there wasn't nothing tight about him when stepped off to take a leak and trotted over a landmine. That blew all the tightness right out of him. Must've spread him out a fifty yards or so. We were picking up pieces of Parker all morning.
I've got his wife's address tucked away somewhere. Reckon I better write her, get that poor lady the news. I think she'd like to hear it from one of the kid's friends. Shit, he even had a little baby on the way. Parker's wife will probably name the kid after his daddy. Course, I never did know the fella's Christian name. Just "Parker". Heh, heh...old Parker.
Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and can't remember what month it is or where we are. Sometimes I forget the name of the town, but, hell, sometimes I can't remember what country we're in. Seems that we cross a new border 'couple times a week. You know, I couldn't rightly say where we're even headed. Guess there's no telling. All I know these days is rain. Rain fallin in on our heads, rain getting in the damn chow. Taste's so bad, sometimes I think it wouldn't be so bad if it's me who gets exploded next. I don't think it rains in heaven much. Maybe me and Parker could shoot the shit for a while, maybe find out who the hell is winning that World Series. Heh. That'll come along soon enough, I reckon. Until then, I'm just gonna march along with the fellas. Just the marching and the raining."
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