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Old 04-11-2009, 16:03   #11
Remington Raidr
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Life Scout, continued into the Explorers.

On one weekend campout, we had a new assistant scoutmaster, tall and skinny, looked kinda like Jerry Reed if memory serves. He didn't say much and he didn't attend church, which, at the time was a big WTF, as our troop was sponsored by the parish. The dad/scoutmaster that bought him along said he had served in the Marines in the early years of the Viet Nam war.

One night, only he and I remained sitting around the campfire, everyone else had turned in. At the time, I was sure that I would enlist in some capacity. Wanting to start a conversation I asked him "if there was ONE thing you would tell someone going to the RVN what would it be?"

Now, since then, I have spoken with hundreds of vets with varying experiences and more than one bigmouthed poser. Couple questions, yeah he was never even in, done. This was not the case here.

He thought about my question for a few seconds, looked me right in the eye, and said "If you shoot them and they go down slow you got 'em, but if they drop quick you missed."

Hey, I asked.

I made for a very short but memorable conversation for this 11 year old.
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