XCV. Artillery. December 13, 2021
>driving Lyft
>I get a phone call on my way to a pickup
>guy says he represents a company that helps veterans
>says if I drive this passenger to a doctor’s appointment in Bainbridge
>and then wait on him and drive him back
>they will add a tip to my fare to pay for the extra time
>I say fine
>it takes a while for the guy to get in the car
>he’s old and frail
>he looks like a Don Cheadle-themed scarecrow
>on the way he tells me his story
>”Yeah they got me going to all these doctors, and now one in Bainbridge
>”Said I got hearing loss—this doctor’s for hearing loss, but that ain’t the problem
>”problem is I got a brain bleed, my brain’s bleeding,
>”and ever morning I gotta take 1500 milligrams, and at night gotta take 1500 milligrams of the other
>”I used to not care about this, I was doing fine on my own, and I never asked the military for nothing
>“But now this doctor says I gotta get treatment for the brain bleed, and they said it happened in 1985 when I got a 275-pound shell dropped on my neck”
>I ask him how it happened
>”I was a gunner on a mobile howitzer, son
>”you could put me in the middle of Tallahassee and I could take out Woodville, take out Quincy, take out whatchacallit, uh, Bradfordville
>”It was a live-fire exercise in Germany in 1985 and they dropped gas on us
>”Yeah you get gas dropped on you, you gotta stop what you’re doing and put the mask on
>”and that’s when I got the 275-pound shell dropped on my neck
>”dropped right on my neck and I didn’t see nothing
>”I was knocked out son; they had to helicopter me out
>”And now they say I might not get to work no more”
>I ask him where he’s from
>”I grew up in Albany, Georgia”
>he pronounces it AWL-benny, as all native Southerners do
>”When I turned eighteen my Mama and Daddy took me to a nice restaurant downtown, real nice restaurant
>”They said I needed to find a way to make a man out of myself, so I went right down there and joined the army
>”I wanted to be an air traffic controller, but I failed the eye-test, so they said they would send me back to school for something else, but I said oh no, no more school for me”
>I ask if he ever heard of Ft. Sill
>his eyes get wide and he says “Son, how you know about Ft. Sill?”
>I say I was born there
>my mother was in First Armored in the late 70s
>he says “It’s beautiful out there, used to live out there till I moved back to Albany
>”Got married and moved to Tallahassee. We got divorced in 2012, and I been by myself since then. All by myself.
>”Now it’s nothing but forms, all the forms to fill out and they say I can’t work no more. I’m a certified pipe-fitter, thirty years here and Albany. Been doing alright, didn’t ask for no help, but I don’t know now, just don’t know”
>so I wait in the audiologist’s parking lot for an hour
>neither of us say much on the way back