THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XVI

THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XVI

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Getting a full Marine Corps Class-A green uniform together took more work than I expected. My report date was for the next day, as there were no free or lull days in Marine Corps life. I had been determined to be available for duty and ordered to my duty station....
THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XV

THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XV

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My wife drove Mickey’s 442, since she wouldn’t let me drive, as we made our way to Highway 280, then 80 across the Bay Bridge, onto 580 to head back south to where the hospital was set back on Mountain Boulevard some distance from the MacArthur Freeway. “Why do all...
The Cowardly Lion, Chapter XIV

The Cowardly Lion, Chapter XIV

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I’d been home for a week before my first contact came in from Oak Knoll, but it wasn’t from the medical side. It was from Johannson, the Marine Corps liaison officer both Mary and I’d dealt with when I was in the ward with the other prisoners. The call came in at...
THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XIII

THE COWARDLY LION, Chapter XIII

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The .45 was in the box it’d come in when the commanding general of the base at Quantico had awarded it to me. My wife had put it up, and as far back on the top shelf of our bedroom closet, as she could. She and Pat had taken Julie to the shopping center for some...
The Cowardly Lion, Chapter XI

The Cowardly Lion, Chapter XI

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There was no delay, no time given, no quarter extended by my body, nor begged for by my mind.  I’d never detoxed before, although the pain had become an old bad friend.  The codeine tablets in my nearby metal drawer, twenty-three of them, got me through the night and...