A HOME FOR YOU AND ME?
The Old Sergeant had been called to Washington to meet with the General. If it had been anyone but his friend he would have refused to come but he owed him for all the times he had keep his butt out of trouble.
The old sergeant was used to walking everywhere so that was exactly what he did from the Marriott, on Army Navy Drive, to the pentagon. He planned on entering the Pentagon at the River Entrance.
He was walking down the sidewalk and he passed a homeless person sleeping in the street. Shaking his head he moved on.
From behind him he heard a soft voice: Pappy?
The old sergeant stopped dead in his tracks. NO one called him Pappy but his closest friends. He turned around and went back to the figure lying under a blanket on the sidewalk.
“Son, do you know me?”
“Pappy I served with you in Iraq.”
“What’s your name son?” Pappy said.
You know me Pappy. I’m Tom.
Sighing Pappy knelt beside the man and slowly helped him to his feet. His hair was down past his shoulders and reeked of vomit. His skin was almost black from dirt and grime, and his clothes looked wet from urine.
“Tom? What happened to you son?”
“After I got out ------ I got sick Pappy. Then I lost everything I had.”
Wrinkling his nose Pappy said, “Yeah. Sick and drunk. And you stink. Well come with me. I have a meeting I can’t miss.”
Pappy had a harder time than he thought getting in the Pentagon with a vagrant but was let through after a call to the general.
When the General opened his door to admit Pappy he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Well, the guards were correct. But they didn’t say it was this bad. Come in Pappy and bring Mr. Tom with you.”
“When I ordered you to report it was to give you a new assignment, not to bring in bums from the street. Well never mind. You say this Tom is a veteran? COLONEL!”
A full bird came running at the Generals call.
“Yes Sir!”
Colonel please take Tom and do SOMETHING with him. Mercy throw him in the shower, get him an old uniform and then feed him while Pappy and I talk over old times and drink some Jack.”
An hour later the General and Pappy were still arguing:
“General you know I would do anything for you Sir. But I simply cannot leave my men in a new and unfamiliar location without leadership. I have to go back to Afghanistan. And forgive me Sir but being your aid is not compatible with my, uh, personality.”
The General laughed. “Well, now that is probably true ---.”
The General stopped in mid sentence as the colonel came in with an aid that looked right out of a recruiting poster. Hair to Army regs and uniform that had creases you could cut your finger on. “Well Colonel? Where’s Tom? Did a little clean water kill him?”
“Uh General? This IS Tom.”
The Generals mouth fell open.
Pappy just smiled. “General, Tom was my platoon leader when we first arrived in Iraq and a fine lieutenant Sir, if I may say so. I stopped on the way up here to look up his record. More medals than you can shake a fist at; outstanding record but lost his commission when he refused to send his men on what he considered was a suicide mission.”
“And I must say General I agreed with him. I was one of those men who probably owe my life to the LT.” Guess he took to drinking after he got thrown out because I lost track of him.”
The General was still staring.
“Uh, General, if a person happened to be looking for, oh---I don’t know. Say an aid? He would be hard pressed to fine a highly educated, combat veteran like Tom. That is Sir, if someone just had the pull to get him back in.”
The General turned around and glared at the old sergeant. “Don’t patronize me you old war horse.”
Looking at the Lt. again the General said, “Colonel bring me his record and start the paperwork. Get him into a billet and I want him in an alcohol treatment program. Now both of you get out.”
As they were leaving the Lt. turned around; “thank you Pappy. We’re more than even.”
With that they were gone.
“Pappy, sit. We need to talk. Now you tell me how in the world you knew I wanted an aid before you got here! AND tell me how you knew you would stumble onto the Lt?”
“General! I’m no psychic! But I do believe that God has a place for all of us. A home for everyone. Sir did you know that on any given night there are about 300,000 homeless veterans sleeping on the streets? Most have PTS or a drug/alcohol problem.”
The General just kept staring.
“Look at it this way Sir. You just did a nice thing.”
Pappy grinned up at the General.
Finally the General said, “Sigh. Yes I know all those things my old friend. Ok. Go on back to your men and TRY not to get killed or get into any more trouble. You GOT that Soldier?”
“YES SIR!”
As Pappy was headed out the door the General said, “Oh Pappy? Tell me the truth. Did you KNOW about the job before you got here?”
Pappy turned around and winked as he closed the door behind him.
The General just shook his head and smiled.
Steve Newton
stevenewton69@hotmail.com