Well,
Hell!
Tom
Davis
"Dad, got a call from Ms. Burk down at the draft board." I
sat holding the phone in a white-knuckled fist.
"Yeah?"
"Well. . . she said. . . you know. . . it looks like my name’s
come up." I glanced around my apartment in Athens, Georgia. An
overstuffed and stained sofa sat against the far wall, framed by two
wooden end tables, each topped with lamps sporting large
umbrella-shaped shades. I found myself in a probationary summer
quarter of law school at the University of Georgia. I hoped against
hope that I would do well enough to get accepted as a regular
student in the upcoming fall quarter.
Dad’s
friends nicknamed him "Lightning" when he was growing up
because of his v e r y slow drawl. Now he drew out a question to the
point that made me want to scream: "What
do you think
you’ll do
about it?"
This wasn’t the way I envisioned the conversation going. No way.
He was a prominent south Georgia lawyer. My grandfather was a
federal court judge for the middle district of Georgia. Both had
connections up the political chain all the way to Sam Nunn, senator
from the great state of Georgia and the chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
"Well, I don’t know. . . Looks like I might. . . You know. .
. Have to go in. And, of course, I’ll be in Vietnam before
long."
"Uh huh," came the distant reply.
I continued, "Well, I looked into the National Guard, but the
recruiter told me that they were full up now. Maybe in a month or
two an opening would come up. . . and. . . you know. . . I might be
able to get in. But I don’t have a few months."
"Looks like you don’t have much of a choice then," Dad
said.
I
decided to give him one more chance to pull my fat out of the fire
as he had always done in the past. "What do you think I should
do? You know. . . About this."
"I think you should be careful and write home often."
Well, Hell!
TOM
DAVIS’ publishing credits include Poets Forum, The Carolina
Runner, Triathlon Today, Georgia Athlete, The Fayetteville Observer’s
Saturday Extra, A Loving Voice Vol. I and II, Special Warfare.,
and Winston-Salem Writers’ POETRY IN PLAIN SIGHT program for 2013
and 2021. He has authored several books. Tom, a retired Special
Forces soldier, has written and published his memoir, The Most
Fun I Ever Had With My Clothes On: A March From Private to Colonel. |