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Show I kn w him. We knew ach other. We had a kid, Fairborn, and his dad was a general. He and his wifl u d t m to the birthday balls all he time the Marine Corps Birthday Ball on the tenth of November. That's the Marine Corps birthday. They have a ball, a dance and a flag ceremony. It's a very pretty ceremony. In fact, I ve got pictures of them in here. They re not of them, but of the ceremony. She'd always said, "Well, you're the most beautiful person I've seen!" She liked the way I looked in uniform, that's all. We were down at summer camp. Well, the Commandant was coming in; not Shepherd, another one. I can't remember his name now. Yes, it was Shepherd. It was Leonard Shepherd. Yeah. Well, Fairborn's father was a general. He'd grown up with every god damn general in the Marine Corps. There were only about ten of them then. So he was our publicity man. He ran the camera and stuff. He's a PFC. So they were all over at this major's tent, and he was critiquing them on how they were to act when the Commandant come in. They said, "Now, I don't know exactly when he's going to get here." So PFC Fairborn says, "May I borrow a phone, sir?" He said, "Yeah. There's one right over there." So he gets on the phone and dials this number. He sits there for, oh, maybe forty seconds. He said, "May I talk to the Commandant?" And this Major went ballistic. God, he jumped up off the table, just screaming and yelling, and he grabbed the phone, and he was apologizing, and he said, "I'm sorry. This PFC was calling the Commandant." They said, "Just a minute. The Commandant will be on the phone." He couldn't 138 |
