[Tress]

It was one of those things that happened every once in a while that we just could not get out of, kind of like having to pick up pine cones around post. The team was on post, we did not have anything of particular import on the training schedule for that day so someone gave us something to do. NBC training! And this NBC training included going through the “gas chamber” to check the seals on our masks, something that no one really looks forward to doing. The designated team NBC NCO, Pizo, refreshed our memories all day long on all things NBC under the hot Carolina sun. At the end of the day we had only one more task to complete and that was to actually go into the gas chamber. We put on our NBC gear and lined up. For some reason (IIRC it was because the actual chamber was really small) we went into the chamber in groups of only three, with Pizo staying in there the entire time. The rest of the team went through and there were just three of us left. Myself, the TM SGT and Joshua Mordecai Freeman (RIP).

Josh, who I just learned recently had died a few years ago in a civilian helicopter crash, was of the Jewish faith, but, at the time, not a practicing Jew by any stretch of the imagination. He was also the team jokester and funny guy. He had a sense of humor that bordered on the deranged at times. The TM SGT was almost always was referred to as “HE.” Those were actually the initials of his first and middle names, but legend had it that his temper was sometimes “highly explosive” and that was why he was referred to as “HE.” To be honest though, I cannot remember ever having seen an example of his temperament being highly explosive. To me he always seemed very even-keeled. And then there was me, 6’-1”, blonde-haired and blue-eyed from a slightly Germanic ancestry.

The group before us exits the chamber and “HE” looks at Josh and I sitting on the bleachers and says, “Come on guys, let’s get this over with.” I started to get up and Josh just screams out, “NO!!!” very seriously and forcefully. I was a little startled and sat back down because I knew, with Josh’s reputation, that this was going to be good and I wanted to see how this would be played out. “HE” looked at him with a grin on his face, he also suspected that this was going to be good, and said in his best father-to-son, calm voice, “O.K. Mordecai, what’s the problem?” (“HE” almost always called Josh by his middle name). Josh replied, “I am not going in there! I will not do it and there is nothing that you can do to make me go in there!” “HE” again asked him what the problem was and Josh went into about a two minute diatribe about how “his people (Jews) have been subjected to this type of atrocity (gas chambers) for far too long and that he was not going to be led into a gas chamber as if he was a sheep like his ancestors were and that he would fight against it with every fiber of his being.” I sat there trying to keep a straight face and wondered if I would now get a chance to see the famous, “highly explosive” temper. I mean, it was not going to be directed at me so what did I have to lose.

“HE” just grinned a little, stepped toward Josh and as he did so said through gnashed teeth, “Mordecai, get your ass in that damned chamber before I kick your ass into it.” Josh, with a complete change of heart, simply said, “OK”, as if he was saying “OK” to going out to get some ice cream, and got up to go into the chamber. I was slightly disappointed that Josh gave up so quickly.
I was still sitting on the bleachers grinning as “HE” looked at me and said, “Come on, Thomas, let’s go.” But, I just simply could not let it all end at this point. I just sat there and as seriously and forcefully as I dared, yelled, “NO!!!” Both “HE” and Josh stopped dead in their tracks and turned towards me, “HE” with a perplexed look on his face and Josh with a shit-eating grin on his. Josh came back to the bleachers, sat next to me, put his arm around my shoulders and grinned back at “HE” along with his newly found supporter at his side. “HE” was now just shaking his head as he walked back to us. “What’s your fucking problem?” “HE” asked, but not in that same father-to-son, mentoring voice. “I am not going into that chamber! I will not do it!” I replied. Josh hugged my shoulders more tightly and told “HE” that he and I were united in this effort to not be gassed.

But “HE” was certainly not stupid and had a bit of a sense of humor also. He also knew of my Germanic ancestry. “I can almost understand Mordecai not wanting to do this, but you surprise me, Thomas. What could your objection possibly be?” “HE” replied. “Hell, your ancestors were the ones that gassed his ancestors. You should feel at home in the damned thing with a Jew beside you!” Josh at this point loosened his grip on my shoulders and moved ever so slightly away from me. I replied, “That is my point exactly. Look at what my ancestors have done to Josh’s ancestors. I do not want to perpetuate this ghastly treatment of other human beings that my ancestors started. It ends here and now.” Josh moved back in close to me and his grip around my shoulders was tighter than before.

At this point Pizo poked his head out of the gas chamber, knowing we still had yet to go through the chamber and was probably wondering where we were. He called out to us and “HE” told him that we would be there in a moment.

Now, to this day, I am not sure if “HE” had reached his breaking point (doubtful) or it had been too long and boring of a day in the hot sun (it certainly was both) or if he just wanted to get the hell out of there and get a beer (which is my guess), but he told the two of us to “get into that damned chamber before I kick both your asses” as he lunged at the two of us on the bleachers. Josh and I both exited the bleachers as if shot out of a canon and walked to the gas chamber with our arms around each other’s shoulders and “HE” grumbling about ten yards behind us. As the three of us were putting on our gas masks Josh was humming “Hava Nagila” while I was humming “Deutschlandlied” (which most will recognize by the incorrect title of “Deutschland Uber Alles”). “HE” looked at us both and shook his head. Josh told him that we were both trying to “get into the proper historical frame of mind” for the gas chamber. “HE” continued shaking his head and laughed as we walked into the chamber, probably wondering what it was that he did to deserve us.

Josh, you passed way too soon, but I will always remember you. Rest in Peace. נוח בשלום