Last Flag Flying Page #7

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What the f*** is that?

I don't know.

I saw it on the MTV, I think.

It's not a rule.

No, I'm not saying it's a rule.

I liked the dude.

He had my back and I had his.

He was honest,

said what he thought.

- Oh, yeah.

- Simple, in a good way.

Never had an attitude.

Sounds a lot like his father.

Even the honest part?

Doc?

Doc is not a dishonest man.

What about the brig time?

F***, that could've happened

to any one of us.

No, he got f***ed.

Doc was a lot younger than us.

He was a kid.

And technically,

he was in the Navy.

Eh. He wanted to be our friend,

and... we took advantage of it.

I mean, we had done him a favor,

and he was doing a favor

for us, and then...

all this sh*t went down, and

someone had to take the fall.

It was Doc.

Hey...

look, why don't you come up

with us for a while, huh?

Redman will look after

your buddy. Won't you?

It's no problem.

That's all right. Thank you.

Geez, come on,

you got to get out of here.

It's colder than Eskimo p*ssy.

I don't mind. Really.

Look...

I want you to come up and talk

to Larry's father, huh?

Say something nice.

I don't know what I would say.

You'll think of something.

Come on.

Boy, oh, boy, look at them.

- Who?

- Geez.

And all the sh*t they bought.

- Boy, they don't have a clue.

- They're just regular people

out doing their

Christmas shopping, Sal.

F***in' sheep is what they are.

I wouldn't mind

being one of them.

Yeah.

It's better than being shot at.

I'd rather be fighting them

over there

than in our own backyard.

Sound familiar?

Oh, yeah.

See, we fought the commies

in 'Nam so we wouldn't have

to fight 'em

on the beaches of Malibu.

Guess it worked.

I... I guess it did.

Yeah, 'cause, uh...

marines got to be willing

to die on order, so...

Semper fi. Do or die.

Yeah, that's always been

the mission, right?

It's a bunch of crap.

Course, you got to have a reason

to want to even get in a fight

in the first place.

So what are they telling us

it is this time? Huh?

That we're in imminent danger.

That they're stockpiling

weapons of mass destruction.

A possible mushroom cloud.

It's just lies.

It's the same old sh*t.

You know, stay the course.

If we pull out now,

then all our heroes

will have died in vain.

You know, blah, blah, blah.

You know, you'd like

to have a little faith

in your leaders

and your country.

I mean, I love this country,

I think we're a good country.

Aren't we a good country?

We are a good country, but...

if you catch your government

lying to you,

it changes everything, doesn't it?

Yeah.

So, kid, how's the living

over there? Hmm?

- It's all right.

- Yeah?

But they sure f***in' hate us

over there.

Sound familiar?

I swear to God, we got to be

the only occupying force

in history

that expects them to like us.

When you go out, you just

never know what to expect.

But... being from Oakland,

I'm used to people dying

all of a sudden.

- Geez.

- Really?

In high school,

one of my best friends

was shot by a stray bullet.

My father, robbed on the street,

and they put one in him.

I didn't even know who he was

until he turned up dead.

- Jesus, kid.

- Lord have mercy.

I'm only sayin'.

So, what, you joined the Marines

to get away

from all that in Oakland?

No. I didn't have much else

to do, so...

uh... you know, I wanted

to strengthen my character.

It was that way with Larry, too.

You know,

we wanted to test ourselves.

Yeah, boy,

we felt the same thing.

Mm-hmm.

Every generation has their war.

Men make the wars,

and wars make the men.

Never ends.

Maybe one day

we'll try something different.

When he was little,

Larry used to like to play

with toy soldiers.

Dig trenches for 'em,

put 'em through basic training.

Mm-hmm.

Mr. Sheppard, Larry was

where he wanted to be.

He hated it.

We all hate it.

But you get sent over there,

and it stops being

about what you want,

or the war, even,

and you're there

for your brothers.

That's all that really matters.

He must have been embarrassed,

me sitting out the last part

of our war in the brig.

No, sir.

He wasn't embarrassed at all.

Thing that made Larry different

from the rest of us in the unit,

he had a happy childhood.

- He said that?

- Yes, sir.

He had a mother and father

that loved him,

loved each other.

And... nice house to live in,

good food to eat,

and he went on about school

and football and...

nice friends.

And he loved you.

Mm-hmm.

Mr. Sheppard, it was my turn

to get the Cokes.

That was my bullet, not Larry's.

Mm-mm. No.

No, no, no.

A gray car pulled up

in front of the house.

Marine lieutenant,

Navy chaplain...

shiny brass belt buckles.

I kept staring

at those shiny buckles.

"The president has asked me

to express his deep regret."

Killed in action.

In action.

Nothing about shot

in the back of the head

getting Cokes for his buddies.

Nothing about...

killed while...

delivering supplies

to the Baghdad school system.

There we go.

There... we go.

Ah-ha.

- Thirsty?

- Hmm?

That went down awfully quick.

Yeah, well, I'm drinking for two

now that you got

all old and boring.

It might be

that you're an alcoholic.

You think?

Well, I am.

- Really?

- Mm-hmm.

But I recognized it, see?

Took ownership of it.

That was the first step.

Mm-hmm.

Why don't you take ownership

of this beer?

- Huh?

- Come on. Don't...

Well, I'm...

I'm very good right now.

With this coffee, I'm fine.

Hey, at least

we're not drug addicts.

Thank... God.

Not anymore.

"Not anymore."

We never were.

We took the sh*t, Sal.

Yeah.

'Cause we needed the sh*t.

No. We needed it,

the corps

would've issued it to us.

Yeah. In a way, they did.

That sh*t was meant for pain.

All drugs are.

So? What's wrong

with taking it, then?

Morphine... is addictive.

Yeah, so is pain.

We weren't the ones

who were in pain, though.

The f*** we weren't.

Different kind of pain.

Pain is pain.

When we get to the next stop,

I got to call Ruth.

You know what you need?

You need one of those

mobile telephones.

You could be talking

to Ruth right now.

- Even on this train, you

could be talking. -Say what?

Yeah. I mean,

every ten-year-old has them.

They practically stopped

making pay phones.

So-so,

we ended up at Disneyland

to resuscitate Doc,

who is metaphorically drowning.

Geez, I got your metaphoricals

right here.

- Stick to the story. Come on.

- Wait, hold on.

Let me, let me follow.

So there's a Disneyland

in Vietnam?

Well, yes, young blood.

That's what they call

the whorehouses and the bars

that spring up around the base.

And it was the company

f***ing commander's doing.

You see, he was

the one who told us,

"Hey, you need

to take a few days off

"and get Doc's ass to Disneyland

before he has

a total meltdown."

I was having some problems.

Yeah, you sure as sh*t were.

And the number one problem

he was having is that

it was time for him

to get his cherry busted.

- Oh.

- So... yes.

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