Something About a Soldier by Charles Willeford

Author:Charles Willeford [Willeford, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

WHEN I READ TIME AND LIFE EACH WEEK, AS THE new magazines appeared in the day-room, I always looked first for news about the Philippines. At least once a month there was an item in Time about how Manuel Quezon, the canny little president, had managed to squeeze more money out of Uncle Sam. I never saw any evidence of this money being spent on the people in the islands, however. I had also read the Time story about the appointment of Paul V. McNutt to the position of high commissioner of the Philippines. According to Time he was "tall, tan, terriiic." The accompanying picture showed a tall, stooped man who had lost most of his white hair. But I guess he was handsome enough.

He was not, however, a terrific golfer.

When we found out that Paul V. McNutt and Bobby Jones, the world's greatest golfer, were going to play the course at Camp John Hay in the morning, everyone in camp wanted to get a look at Bobby Jones. A big group of people was at the first tee down by Charlie Corn's when the game began, but they weren't allowed to follow the golfers onto the course. No one else was allowed to play the course until they had finished, either. It was a matter of security, and the two V.I.P. golfers were accompanied by an M.P. major, a buck sergeant M.P. , and three Philippine Constabulary policemen in dark suits, white shirts, and striped rep neckties.

The best place to get a close look at Bobby Jones was from the front porch of the signal corps-men's little house. I took advantage of my acquaintanceship with these guys to join them. Our view of the ninth hole and green was perfect, and we could look straight down the steep hill and watch them tee off as well. It was almost ten-thirty before they reached the number nine tee, and by that time we had polished off at least half of a grande of A1—1A gin.

Fellows, the senior corpsman, a P.F.C., third class specialist, was singing verses to "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," and the rest of us (five guys altogether), who didn't know the words, chimed in on "big rock candy mountain" at the end of each verse.

The three plainclothes constabulary men came up the hill first and checked the nearby bushes and trees for lurking assassins. Then one of them came over to the porch and put his finger to his lips. He told us we must be silent when the golfers teed off below.

"Don't shush me, you gook motherfucker," Fellows said.

The plainclothesman let that go. The three of them took up positions on three sides of the green with their backs to it. The two Filipino caddies, carrying the clubs, also came up the hill and took positions on both sides of the green. They didn't take out the flag, because the golfers needed to see the tip of the flag from the tee below. Bobby Jones, wearing

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.