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thedrifter
04-08-03, 04:57 PM
Elmer T.



The old man sat on the stone bench

Looking dapper in a faded blue suit

Black wingtips buffed to a bright glossy shine

His cane resting across his lap



A red tie on a white shirt showed he had style

A gold pin was stuck in his lapel

The pin that he was never without

Of an eagle atop a globe with a fouled anchor



Gray cropped hair surrounded a bald scalp

Wrinkles covered his tired, stern face

A face that his nose had outgrown

Weary blue eyes set deep but still sharp



His name was Elmer T.

He came here everyday and just seemed to be waiting

But nobody knew just what he was waiting for

Or even knew his name, for nobody ever bothered to asked



If they had, well the answer was just plain simple

For Elmer T. was not waiting at all

At least not for someone or something

He just came here to sit and watch, but mostly just to think



At seventy-six and ill, he knew his life would soon be over

After all his dear Martha was already gone

So sitting here in this new mall was far better

Than sitting at home all alone



His two surviving boys were all grown up and gone

Now even his grandkids had kids

Most lived out west, for that’s where people go now

There was a sister down in D. C.



Maybe if Charlie, his oldest, was still alive today

He might have stayed closer to home

But Charlie, his dear darling boy,

Had not come home from that crazy war in Vietnam



So Elmer T. spent most of his mornings

Watching people as they passed by

Families with excited kids, running into and out of stores

Old couples shopping arm in arm



And he watched with some concern

The young adults with their rowdy ways

More than once a crude gesture or some profane insult

Was thrown at him with no cause or reason



Elmer T. would mostly ignore them

And chalk it up to their ignorance and youth

But sometimes they would annoy him

With their total lack of respect



Elmer T. smiled to himself

And thought of how different his youth had been

A time of peril and hardship,

A sad fearful time of war



Just three months short of his high school graduation

Young and foolish, thinking the war would pass him by

Elmer T. and his best friend Smitty, both just seventeen

Enlisted in the United States Marine Corps



He thought of how big and strong he had been

Six foot and one hundred and seventy pounds

But that was so very long ago

Time and illness had wasted him away



“Now that had been in what? Oh yeah, March of ’44.”

By February of ’45 they were pinned down on a bloody beach at ‘Iwo’

Elmer T. looked down as his eyes started to water

As he thought again of that time



Oh how he missed those men he once knew

Their friendship and love for each other

Lost half his platoon in just the first two days

And good old Sgt. Anderson, ‘Pappy’ was what he’d been called



Not just because he was a veteran of the ‘Canal’

He was known as ‘Pappy’ for being all of twenty-four

The old man in their squad

Lost to a sniper on D+4

Elmer T. had spent three weeks on that burning hell

Watching his buddies die one by one

Killing a hidden enemy the same way

One by bloody one



He saved Smitty’s life, at least Smitty would have told it that way

Cut down by a grenade, wounded and in the open

Elmer T. was hit twice going out to save his friend

Hit once more on the way back in



He was awarded a Silver Star

But if anyone had cared to ask

Elmer T. will tell you, “It ain’t honest.”

What was I to do? Just leave my best friend out there?”



Elmer T. gripped his cane tight

As he remembered Smitty’s funeral

After all they had been through together

Smitty died in an automobile accident back in ‘49



His trembling hand brushed a wet cheek

He looked towards the sunlit doors

“That’s life.” He said to himself

“What is God’s will we do not know.”



God and the Corps were not done with Elmer T.

In ’50 the Korean War exploded while he was in the Reserves

Called up to serve again, married but no children

For Charlie was just on the way



So with ‘Chesty’ and the Glorious 1st

Elmer T. climbed the Inchon walls

Street to street, house to house

Fighting through Inchon, and Seoul



He soon found a different war

Way up north by the Chosin Reservoir

Now instead of killing the enemy one by one

They came at you all at once by the thousands



With bugle calls in the chilling cold

Wave after wave they rushed forward

Elmer T. swore that every single one

Was personally coming for him



One night while on a flanking patrol

Protecting ‘The Frozen Chosen’

He won another Silver Star

For wiping out a Chinese mortar squad



The wound he received was his ‘ticket home’

To his wife and newborn son

And again if you should ask about this ‘Star’ well

“I was just doin’ my job.”



As Elmer T. sat reflecting

He had noticed three young boys

Three times they had passed him as he sat thinking

One of them commenting, “Look at that old fart.”



They stood now ten feet away

Talking low and looking at him

Smiling and laughing

Cooking up some sort of mischief

He tried to pay them no mind

And decided to start for home

But before he got up to leave

He whispered his simple prayer



“Smitty, Pappy, Doc and Dutch

All of my other dear friends. Charlie my beloved son, dear Martha,

God bless you all for coming into my life. God keep you.

I love you all and I will see you soon again. Amen”



Weary from his thoughts

Elmer T. decided that as he sat here again tomorrow

He should reflect upon happier times

He would think of when he met Martha and of his beautiful boys



Standing he collected himself

He straightened his tie and jacket

And while leaning on his cane

Rubbed the pain from the old wounds in his legs



Now using the cane for balance

The frail old man slowly went out the door

Turning down a street he had failed to notice

The three boys had followed him



These boys, all of fifteen

Figured they had an easy mark

This old man they figured, could not hurt them

But if necessary, they would hurt him



Elmer T. had overcome plenty of fear in his life

But that was when he had been young and strong

Now hearing the footsteps, murmurs and laughter behind him

That old feeling of fear began again



Glancing over his shoulder

Elmer T. saw them gaining ground

Looking around there seemed to be no help

And he knew he was in trouble



Elmer T. felt the fear growing stronger

Absently he reached up to pull down on his lapel

That’s when his hand hit the pin

That’s when he got mad



Elmer T. was not mad at the kids

He was not mad at the situation

He was not mad because he was now old and frail

He was mad at himself for being scared!



“After all you’ve been through,

You’re afraid of these kids?

Well you may not be the man you used to be,

But than neither are these boys!”



“Damn it man you are a Marine!

So buck up and act like one!”

Still clutching his pin he raised his cane

And with an old familiar rush of adrenaline, he whirled



Well, he whirled as well as seventy-six year old man

With two bad legs could whirl

But it must have impressed the boys

For they stopped dead in their tracks



Elmer T.’s weary tired old eyes

Had turned to cold blue piercing steel

As he looked the lead boy straight in the eyes

“What do you want?” asked Elmer T. boldly and firm



Surprised the boy stuttered, than collecting himself said,

“We want your money old man.”

“Yeah,” piped in another, “give it up or get hurt!”

Meanwhile Elmer T. quickly sized up his foe



He had learned long ago a hard lesson

Do not under estimate your enemy

And he knew that now at his age

These boys could do him some harm



He knew they had no plan,

No signal for who would strike first

It was all catch as catch can, hit and run

He also saw no weapons



Thinking faster than he had in years he made his plan

Knowing that his first stroke would be his best shot

He would strike the biggest, closest bandit first

Knocking him on his ass might take the fight out of the other two



Raising his cane a little higher

He noticed that the one farthest away

Was already holding back, losing his nerve, ready to run

He was sure that it was now down to two against one



“I said give us your money you old bastard!” said the biggest one

Elmer T. with a strength he had not felt in years

And a voice calm, firm and chilling, simply stated

“Come and get it.”



The big one darted in

Then jumped aside

And with all his might, the old man swung his cane

And missed



Elmer T. felt a sharp, quick pain under his out stretched arm

As the boy lunged in and made contact

And while falling to the ground

He saw the flash of a blade in the boy’s right hand



Now the other two were on him

Kicking him as he lay dying

Ripping open his faded blue jacket to steal his wallet

And laughing at his pain



Just as quickly has they had struck

The bandits were now gone

Running in three separate directions

Shouting, cursing and laughing into the coming night



“Damn,” said Elmer T. “That kid was fast.”

continued.............

thedrifter
04-08-03, 04:58 PM
And lying on his back

Stretched out on the warm concrete

He knew his life was ending



Some people started to gather

Around the dying old man

But it was not these person’s faces

That were seen by his dying eyes



As Elmer T. looked around

What he saw made him smile

For there was his beloved Martha, Charlie, and Smitty

And the men from his lost platoon.



Martha was smiling sweetly, as pretty as can be

Standing next to her was Charlie, as young as the day he had left

While Smitty, with his big wide grin, extended a hand saying,

“Let’s go buddy, I’ll help you up.”



The people gathered there must have wondered

If this old man had lost his mind

For he was actually smiling

And reaching out is hand



Elmer T., a good man, husband and father,

Patriot, a true hero in every sense

Survivor of two wars and countless battles

Died there on that street



And he was heard to softly whisper

As his hand fell back across his chest,

“What is God’s will we do not know?”

“Saddle up Smitty, let’s move out.”


Sempers,

Roger