MikeN
June 25, 2016, 11:54am
1
Author of Dispatches, one of the best pieces of war correspondence ever:
But he always seemed to be watching for it, I think he slept with his eyes open, and I was afraid of him anyway. All I ever managed was one quick look in, and that was like looking at the floor of an ocean. He wore a gold earring and a headband torn from a piece of camouflage parachute material, and since nobody was about to tell him to get his hair cut it fell below his shoulders, covering a thick purple scar. Even at division he never went anywhere without at least a .45 and a knife, and he thought I was a freak because I wouldnât carry a weapon.
"Didn't you ever meet a reporter before?" I asked him.
"Tits on a bull," he said. "Nothing personal."
But what a story he told me, as one-pointed and resonant as any war story I ever heard, it took me a year to understand it:
"Patrol went up the mountain. One man came back. He died before he could tell us what happened."
I waited for the rest, but it seemed not to be that kind of story; when I asked him what had happened he just looked like he felt sorry for me, fucked if he'd waste time telling stories to anyone dumb as I was.
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Also from Dispatches , a portion of a vignette from Khe Sanh :
I was walking by myself in the 1st Battalion area. It was before eight in the morning, and as I walked I could hear someone walking behind me, singing. At first I couldnât hear what it was, only that it was a single short phrase being sung over and over at short intervals, and that every time someone else would laugh and tell the singer to shut up. I slowed down and let them catch up.
ââIâd rather be an Oscar Mayer weiner,ââ the voice sang. It sounded very plaintive and lonely.
Of course I turned around. There were two of them, one a big Negro with a full mustache that drooped over the corners of his mouth, a mean, signifiying mustache that would have worked if only there had been the smallest trace of meanness anywhere on his face. He was at least six-three and quarterback thick. He was carrying an AK-47. The other Marine was white, and if Iâd seen him first from the back I would have said that he was eleven years old. The Marines must have a height requirement; whatever it is, I donât see how he made it. Age is one thing, but how do you lie about your height? Heâd been doing the singing, and he was laughing now because heâd made me turn around.
âDonât pay no attention to him,â the Negro said. âThatâs Mayhew. Heâs a crazy f***er, ainât you, Mayhew?â
âI sure hope so,â Mayhew said. ââIâd rather be an Oscar Mayer weiner. . . .ââ
The cultural reference:
Rocket
June 25, 2016, 11:55pm
3
Never mind that he wrote all of Martin Sheenâs narration for Apocalypse Now AND adapted Gus Hasfordâs mind-blowing The Short Timers into the script for (the decidedly inferior, in this raccoonâs opinion) Full Metal Jacket , although Hasford was unhappy with the results and got booted off the project.
Dispatches is a singular read. I meself have never been without a copy in one form or another since the early 80s, and re-read it regularly every couple of years.
He will be missed.
(Posting, in the embedded link immediately above, a preserved copy of the now-404 ed Time magazine Larry Burrows pic of the Marines at Khe Sanh . (Thanks, Internet Archive!))
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yyy
April 20, 2023, 8:29pm
5
Inferior to Apocalypse Now or just inferior to The Short Timers ?