{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe1033{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\li1080\b\f0\fs24 Fallen Angel\b0\line\line\b Prologue\b0\line\line "Here's your mail Capt'n."\line\line "Thanks Barney."\line\line "Come on Capt'n, please don't call me that. Burney, \line it's Burney!"\line\line I laughed, taking a sip of beer, and replied, "Beat it\line you little shit!" He walked out with a stack of\line letters in his hand.\line\line "Why do you keep harassing the little guy, Brian?"\line Lieutenant Bristol asked, shaking his head while\line laughing. He and I were sitting in the officers club,\line drinking a beer.\line\line "Hell Tom, the little shit likes it. He just doesn't\line like me doing it in front of others. Says it's bad\line enough hearing it from the enlisted men. I'll say one\line good thing about him, anything you want, and that\line little shit can get it for you. Where do you think\line that Budwiser came from?"\line\line "I thought you swapped out with that supply sergeant\line in Bien Hoe."\line\line\line\line "Hell no, that was Barney's deal. I just retrieved it\line for him and got my cut. I'll catch you later. I'm\line going back to the hooch to read my mail."\line\line\line\line "Okay. Are you back up flying tomorrow?" Tom asks, as\line I'm pulling my poncho over my head.\line\line\line\line "Yeah, if avionics gets that damn electrical bug\line repaired in my instrument panel. Damn I hate the\line monsoons," I replied, exiting.\line\line Minutes later, after cutting across the company's\line compound, sloshing through the mud and rain, I was\line in the hooch, laying down on my bunk, and opening\line the letter from mother. It was thicker than normal, \line which meant Karen probably wrote a couple of pages \line and mom stuck hers in the envelope too. I folded my \line pillow, propping my head up, while laying back.\line\line\cf1\i Dear Brian,\line\line Your sister was so happy to get your letter just before\line her fourteenth birthday last week. It meant so much \line to her that you didn't forget, she became so emotional \line she cried. Since your father's death, three years ago, \line she has looked up to you to take his place. Being\line fourteen, with no father figure around the house, is\line hard on her. She comes to me every night before she\line goes to bed so we can say our prayers together. She\line asks God every night, at least three times, to let you\line come home safe.\line\line Steven, on the other hand, is on cloud nine, as he is\line graduating this spring. He wants to follow your\line footsteps, and go to college. At present, he hasn't\line said anything about going into the military, thank God.\line\line I worry about you. I hope you're not carrying the\line hate, for those people, as you did when your father was\line killed. I have forgiven them because I know that's\line what God wants me to do. I couldn't live the rest of\line my life with the hate I once carried. It serves no\line purpose to hate any one person, much less a whole\line country.\line\line I miss your father and I still can't understand why you\line wanted to go over there, especially since that place\line took his life. I'll never understand men. However,\line you're just like he was, gung-ho. Well, I won't start\line that up again. I'm sure you have better things to do\line than to listen to me go on about your father. Karen\line wanted to write to you so I thought I would too. We\line love you Brian, take care of yourself, and write soon.\line We wish you were here during the holidays.\line\line Love, Mom\i0\line\cf0\line I wish she would let it go. In all the letters I have\line received from her, only two, did she fail to mention\line Dad.\line\line Dad was career marine, and as mom said, gung ho. \line I'll say gung ho. I spent my life taking orders from\line Gunnery Sergeant Hill, probably the meanest son of a\line bitch to ever put on a Marine uniform. He stood at six\line foot two hundred pounds and not an ounce \line of fat. To most of his friends he must have seemed \line like a great guy with his good looks and the charming \line way he spoke, that's when he was with them, but with \line me, it was, Private Brian, give me twenty push-ups. \line Private Brian, name five plants a soldier can eat to \line sustain life, if alone in a jungle with no rations and on \line and on. That's how I grew up, starting at seven years \line old. It got worse the older I became. What military \line tactic would you use in this situation, or in that \line situation? He or Mom never knew; but I was so glad \line every time he was sent away, on temporary duty, or \line stationed somewhere that the family couldn't go.\line\line Steven had it made compared to the way I grew up. \line Dad had mellowed as he became older, but not \line before I graduated from high school. Mother, well, \line she is the personification of everything that is good in \line a person. Always looks to the brighter side of any \line situation, or to the good in a person. For instance, \line when she speaks of the way dad raised me, she was \line very much aware of my anger and that I didn't care \line about living like a good little soldier. "Your father \line had his reasons for bringing you up that way," she \line would say, and then repeat. "You've learned \line discipline, honor, and most of all, you're able to take \line care of yourself and even survive in any given situation. \line That will mean something to you someday when you \line get out in the world and on your own."\line\line\cf1\i Hi big brother,\line\line Thank you for writing me. I miss you so much and \line wish you could be here for Thanksgiving. Sometimes \line Mom cries at night when she goes to bed, I know \line she's thinking of daddy. Have you found and killed \line them soldiers that killed daddy? I hope so. Steven \line has new girlfriend. Her name is Linda. She is very \line pretty and Steven acts goofy when she comes over. \line He bought her a necklace for Christmas. But I'm not \line supposed to tell. \line\line Carol came by yesterday. She is out of college for the \line holidays just as we are. She told momma you and she \line was mad at each other because you went to Vietnam \line and stayed two times. She acts nice, but if you don't \line like her, I don't either. I have a new friend; she \line moved here from New Mexico and speaks Spanish. \line Steven said if daddy was alive that I couldn't have her \line as a friend. Are you having turkey for thanksgiving? \line Momma is calling me, bye. Please come home this \line time. I love you.\line\line Your little sister, Karen\i0\line\cf0\line I smiled inside, thinking how innocent she is. Steven\line was right about one thing. Dad wouldn't let her have\line a friend that wasn't of the same race. Dad never said\line he didn't like people from other ethnic backgrounds\line because he was with many of them everyday, but I\line realized as I got older who and who to not associate\line with. I asked mother about it one time and she said\line people should mingle with their own kind. I was never\line sure if that came from her heart or Dads. In all the\line time I spent in college, I never had any close Black or\line Spanish friends, but I associated with them all the time.\line\line As I got older, I assumed many of his traits, like\line remaining firm in any decisions I made, stubbornness,\line and ambitious. I also stood eye to eye at six foot but\line he had fifteen pounds on me at 200. Conditioning\line himself was a daily routine as he had overly \line emphasized to me as I grew up. I broke away from \line that routine when I opted for an engineering \line scholarship at Georgia Tech over a football scholarship \line at Notre Dame, besides a few others.\par }