My Sunday Feeling

I got the news about Jerry. He was a little older than the rest of us. He had served with the Marines in Viet Nam and was attending law school on the GI Bill. He was, by all appearances, pretty affable and easy going. I can't say that I knew all that well but he was a fun guy to have a beer with. I do recall he was completely ambivalent about a legal career. He came from a long line of river boat pilots and he was pretty much guaranteed a job doing that if he wanted to seeing as how the union restricted entry level positions to family members. I can't imagine they are still getting away with that nowadays but that was the case back in 1981.

Jerry was an officer in Nam. One day he and his men were surrounded by Viet Cong. Jerry called in for air support. He ordered his sargeant to sent up a smoke grenade. Red meant "enemy." Green meant "same team." The sargent screwed up and sent up a red grenade. The helicopters opened fired on Jerry's men. Many of them were killed including the hapless sargent. A buddy of mine had many conversations with Jerry about his days in Viet Nam and about that particular incident. He said Jerry just shrugged it off as the kind of thing that can happen in the fog of war.

According to the Times-Picayune, a co-worker knocked on the door to his office over at the Courthouse in Gretna to remind him of a meeting. He heard a popping sound. He opened the door and found Jerry dead. Shot in the head with a 9mm. Employees don't have to go through a security point. That's how he could waltz into the Courthouse with a handgun.

I haven't heard anything else from the guys down there. Anytime a person takes his or her own life we try to figure out the reason "why?" It's just human nature. Did he have money problems? Was he depressed? Did the fact that he did it at the office mean anything? My friend who used to talk to him about his service wondered if the fact that he killed himself a week before Memorial Day was in itself a message.

Who knows? Some people can escape the fog of war. Some cannot. And some live in their own fog without ever having worn the uniform.

Like Jerry, my friend Tom served with the Marines in Nam. I told him about Jerry. Tom is very proud of his service but like most guys who have seen serious combat is modest and circumspect. About all he allowed concerning Jerry was to say that "the experience of combat changes ones life forever." He also gently suggested that maybe we should think of our fallen comrade Jerry tomorrow on Memorial Day.

So here's to my Dad who spent his 18th birthday at Iwo Jima and who spent the early years of his marriage having nightmares about it. Here's to Danny, John and Michael who did I raq and Afghanistan. Here's to Matt who should be on the way home even as I type this. Here's to Tom who carried the big machine gun in Nam. Here's to his son who followed him to the Marine Corps and got back himself from Iraq.

Here's to all the men and women who have ever worn the uniform.

And here's to Jerrold Peterson, Law 1981, The Tulane University of Louisiana who maybe never escaped the fog of war.

We thank you and we grateful.