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Show house/ 396 signed upon his enlistment. He left on schedule, July 24,1967, marching with the customary Utah Platoon in the Pioneer Day Parade along with thf&ty-nine other youths. It was an illogical echo of the Mormon Battalion which was pledged to fight in the Mexican War when Utah was first being settled by Mormon pioneers. Despite the U.S. Government resistence to Mormon dreams, the President of the Church, Brigham Young, had committed five hundred troops, hoping that this gesture would prove Mormon loyalty to the American way of life and that it would soften the persecutions sponsored by the government. The United States had accepted the help, but returned no favors. Even while the Mormon Battalion marched, Church leaders were harrassed for living polygamy. As I watched him board the plane, kissing Miss Utah and loving it with thirty-nine others, a horrifying helplessness made my fingers limp. I wondered if he -- like half of the Mormon Battalion - would fail to return to Zion. When he was gone, I felt emptier than ever. I had no one to blame but myself. I half-understood that I had broken a law. 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' If only I had left it up to the Lord.... Why did I always forego such realizations until something precious was lost? Why did I always learn the hard way, as though I was a spiritual idiot, a moron of the soul? When my tears were spent, the nightmares began. The Vietnam War was in full operation, although it was still dubbed 'confict.' Brian had said that there were two kinds of Marines: Those who had been and those who were going. i |
