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I wish I could tell y'all how many times I have chosen at dinners to be the last seated, how many delightful dinner companions were in the company surrounding that last place.
In one case, it happened that at my left hand was a Marine veteran of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion who had come 500 miles for the banquet. He was engaged in the battle on Guadalcanal for the "Bloody Ridge," otherwise known as "Edson's Ridge" in which he and literally a handful of heroes who turned back the advance of the Japanese pacific islands advance.
What a blessing of remembering the beginning of the victories of our Always Faithful Corps in the Pacific Theater of Operations. "Bloody Ridge" was the end of the beginning, and the beginning of the end of World War Two.
While I was singing "Mairzie Doats" and "God Bless America" at the beginning of each first grade school day, this man was battling for his Ciorps, his country, and my privilege to freely sing these songs.
Thanks for sharing that with us. It is quite an honor to be there for sure. A much better honor to be at a table with men like him than one with the rulers of the world who created the situation for the war they fought so hard to win.
Back in my wayward years, I was a private in the army, stationed in Germany. It was 1974, and I was young and foolish. Many of the service men I met were soldiers who returned from Nam after we bailed on them. Similar to how Obama bailed on Iraq as you know I’m sure.
It was as if the military used Germany as a halfway house the men who still had time left on their deployment, but were not ready to return to the states. I never met a more wayward bunch of men who cared nothing for rules and less about their own future. Many were drug addicts, and being only 17 myself, that made it easy for me to get caught up in the culture.
Well a friend and me went to Amsterdam to buy Hashish to make money off all the servicemen willing to buy it. A crime that would give us a one way ticket back to the states, but not home. No, it was a 10 year sentence back then, so my destination would be Leavenworth we were caught.
Well the guys we hired to carry the drugs across the Amsterdam German border were caught, and we lost all our money, but we were mostly worried they would name us as their cohorts, so instead of taking the chance at prison we went AWOL.
They never did finger us, but we would not know for a few Months when we returned.
We ended up going to Southern France,thinking a great place to be would be Marseilles on the coast. On our way we went through many villages and towns as we hitchhiked. One day we decided to stop at a village called Puget-Ville, and find a pub to have a few drinks with what money we had left. While downing a warm beer an older Frenchman who spoke impeccable English struck up a conversation with us. His name was Pier Camous, and we learned he owned a good sized vineyard. In the few hours of our conversation we also learned that during WWII he was a member of the French Underground.
Well we told him we were broke after we downed our beer, and he started buying us shots of Schnapps. He asked if we were willing to pick grapes since it was that time of the season and we agreed. We followed him home, and he loaned us a tent and things so that we could stay inside his private garden area. He even told us we could eat anything we wanted. He also had his wife making us lunch ever day, and even invited us to have dinner with him and his family a few days a week.
It took like two weeks to pick all the grapes. We were just two of about 30 workers, so while he had a large vineyard it did go fairly quick.
The stories he told us about the war during dinner, the friendship we gained, and his daughters whom as young men we especially liked made it a memorable time in my life. We even learned that he lost his only son in Vietnam.
He was the first person to inform us about the truth behind the United States being involved in the war via the events of the Gulf of Tonkin. Because of his status from WWII, he had friends in high places that he learned things from the most of the world was still unaware of as of yet.
Anyway, I keep those memories in my heart to this day. Oh, as for the times we spent with his beautiful daughters, it was all decent and respectful in the way we acted towards them and the way they acted like ladies.
We eventually returned to Germany, got court Martialed for being AWOL, Dropped From Roles. That’s a story for another time. I mean as to what all that transpired with us came about from us turning our selves in to France officials which became quite the international incident.
I did keep my nose clean and grew up fast. Eventually I got the honorable discharge I was promised. I finished my punishment, and fulfilled my time I duty and even had a chance to re-in-list, buy refused.
My second chance was all due to a deal my Captain worked out for me and Mike. I think he felt sorry for two young men whom he felt were extremely corrupted by the older men around us. He believed, that if given a second chance, we would do good. Well I did, Mike ended up corrupted for life. The last I ever heard from him he was in late 1987, when I heard he was heading to prison in Texas for drug trafficking.
The meals with Pierre Camous were better than any meal I could have had with a King.