Chapter Twenty
You fly for about two more hours in and out of sleep and over the mountains and a long stretch over just miles and miles of brown grass, and the helo squats again and then settles down and you look out the window and can see tents and about twenty helos all lined up, and then you are down on the ground and the helo winds down its blades slowing and finally the crew chief stands up and waves his hand for you to unbuckle and you fuck with the latches and then get it off throwing the straps down over the side of your seat, and you stand up and can feel your butt all wet with sweat and your legs unlock and everything creaks a little, and then you hunch down and walk down the helo to the ramp and remember the rotor’s on the right now and you walk out and turn left and step out on to long grass and into hot air.
You can see a town off in the distance shimmering and you walk out into the grass smelling the smells of JP5 and hot metal and oil and you see a tent and you turn and look at Mr. Holden and he shrugs his shoulders and you nod toward the tent and he nods and then the two of you walk across the long grass tangling your boots to the tent, and then you see Captain McCord sitting in the front of the tent under the fly smoking a huge cigar and he says hey Kieffer and you say hey sir and then Mr. Holden walks up and you say to Captain McCord this is Mr. Holden and he’s from ship’s stores and he’s got two pallets of smokes and gee-dunk for your Marines sir and Mr. Holden comes up and he shakes Captain McCord’s hand then Captain McCord says sit down boys and you do sit right there with the officers and shit, you sit down, and Captain McCord reaches down behind him and finds a box and lifts it out and offers you all cigars.
You say no, of course, but Mr. Holden takes one and you light a smoke and you all sit around for a minute lighting up and smoking and you lean back in the canvas chairs and Mr. Holden says this is a nice cigar captain and you can see he’s a little green but he’s puffing all the same and then Captain McCord says what can we do for you boys and Mr. Holden says can we catch a ride down to Iraq and deliver our load and Captain McCord calls out for the Gunney who comes around the corner and has to have a cigar too and you all are sitting there with the freaking Gunney for god’s sake.
And Mr. Holden is saying that you want to get a HUMVEE and drive around and drop shit off for the Marines and the Gunney is nodding and Captain McCord is saying don’t we got space on the ‘46s going down tomorrow a.m. and the Gunney says yessir and Captain McCord says let’s wrestle up a working party to load their shit tonight and then let’s talk to S-3 and get a HUMVEE for these boys once they get to Camp Denton and you say Camp Denton sir and he says that’s the forward base south of Dohok named for a sergeant who rolled his truck down well you’ll see it and bought it you can start there and run down to the south and then over the mountains and then to the camps and you say yessir thank you sir and Mr. Holden says that sounds perfect captain.
And so you sit there looking out over Turkey and the sun starts going down and the shadows of the Marines humping the stores, your stores, out of the ’53 and into a ‘46 stretch out toward your feet, stretched out and feeling good and the Captain goes back into the tent and comes out with a tray with a bunch of little cups and you all take one and drink this wicked hot really good coffee and then the Captain looks at his watch and says five four three two one and then he’s off duty and he goes back into the tent and comes out with a tray with a bunch of little glasses on it and you all take one and drink down this wicked hot liquor than trickles down your throat and into your stomach and you are feeling pretty damn good and then you all have another round and then later the Gunney comes for you and you follow him through the dark, through the Turkish dark to a tent where there’s a cot and you lie down and pull your blanket out and pull it up around your shoulders and lay back into the soft canvas and look up at the tent overhead.
And then you hear the thud, thud, thud of rifles and you sit up into the dark and look out the tent flaps and over the town you see tracers arcing up into the sky and the Gunney is there next to you and he says real soft it’s just the PPK shooting up the town and you nod even though you don’t know what the hell he is talking about and then you lay your head down in the cot in the tent in Turkey and you can still see over the edge of your cheek the bullets flying up into the air and coming down you don’t know where and then you are asleep.
You Are Free Page 20