Twice was enough for me. The first time I went the rifle bounced off my shoulder because I didn’t hold the butt firmly enough, and so the bullet hit a light. The second time, I was bitten by a dog, and Pa had to take me to hospital.
In the military, I shot badly, and was very slow at assembling and disassembling the Colt M4A1 automatic, and so regularly collected punishments from Hornet and threats to send me ‘hunting for a dollar’.
Meanwhile, our guys in Iraq had already taken Baghdad, but Saddam went on the run and his soldiers adopted guerrilla tactics. Our training came to an end. One day I saw a civilian car on the parade ground in front of headquarters – the same car as that Mr. Jenkins who gave a ride to me and spoke about heroism on a bench in the park. The occupant went inside a
