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Show Flying - 151 The sergeant of the guard holds up an old field jacket and Biggs sticks the muzzle of his carbine up against it and fires. It doesn't make very much noise, but there is a six-inch hole in the heavy cloth, with burned and smoking edges. "Never fire at anybody closer than about ten yards, and never aim for the face," says Biggs, holding the jacket high for all to see. "Did you hear about Freneau?" says Jackson to John Henry as they walk off. They are in the third relief and have four hours to kill before they walk their first tour. "Did you hear what that fool did?" says Jackson. "He figured him being the commanding general and all, it'd inspire the troops or something if he led the assault personally, so he cane in on the first boat and when it hit the beach he junps up on the side of it and yells Follow me.' and jumps down ten feet onto the beach and breaks his fool leg. That's why they was so late getting started, they had to clear his body out of there before they could go on. I was over in O'Connell's van and we heard the whole thing on the radio. Old fool thought he was still twenty years old," says Jackson. "Follow me, men! Sheeit." "I saw it," says John Henry, "but I didn't know it was General Freneau. I thought it was Just some soldier got hurt." "You ain't too very bright, are you? You think they'd stop the whole fucking war just because some soldier got hurt?" |