Shooting People

There's been a lot of talk in the news lately about what happened with our Veep, the Honorable Richard Cheney. Maybe people are shocked, or maybe surprised that such a thing could happen. Face the facts of life, stuff like this happens. It even happens with the highly trained men and women of the Armed Forces. I had the extreme displeasure of being close by when an accidental discharge claimed the life of a young soldier.

Can you imagine doing something so stupid, that immediately after you do it, you know that your life is ruined?

I was in the internet room when it happened. I was getting some precious time connected to the World Wide Web, time in which I can forget that I'm on the other side of the globe from my friends and family. So when I heard a sharp crack, followed by some guys across the hall yelling, "go get a medic!" my first thought was to ignore it. It sounded like someone broke a chair, or some othe piece of furniture. These guys were prolly horsing around, and somebody broke their arm, or their nose, or something.

The desperate tone in the voices out in the hall forced me to give this a second thought. One of the guys in the internet room asked if any of us were medics. Then another guy said that that sounded like a gunshot.

On second thought, it did sound like a gunshot. I left my iBook and my personal weapon behind and walked into the hallway to find shocked soldiers running past me in both directions. Then I heard something that couldn't be true. I overheard somebody say that the lieutenant shot him.

A lieutenant ran past me. I heard him say, "I shot a soldier in the head." He appeared to be laughing. Well then it must be a joke, I thought.

But it wasn't a joke. I asked a PFC who was walking out of the room where it had apparently happened. He said that the lieutenant accidently shot somebody. I assume he appeared to me to be laughing because he had become hysterical at that point. The lieutenant had run back into the hallway at this time and yelled, "I swear I cleared my weapon!" Then he fell on his knees and started screaming, Oh God, I'm so sorry!

The lieutenant got up and started running back and forth. I saw that he had blood on his hands. Two sergeants managed to grab him and goad him to a relatively empty part of the hall, next to the computer room. I managed to get in and grab my laptop and weapon before they sealed off the computer room. They black out all personal communications whenever someone dies.

When I got out, I saw that the lieutenant was on the ground. A captain was talking to him. Two majors were already in the hall on their cell phones, looking cool, as if they'd seen this type of thing a dozen times before. The captain was telling the LT that he needed to calm down and tell him what happened. He needed to know whether it was an accidental discharge, or if there was an armed Iraqi loose in the building. The lieutenant was crying, I shot a soldier. Oh God, I killed a soldier.

I swear, I have never seen such desperation. The LT's wailing was a memory that will haunt me all my days.

The two sergeants were attempting, unsuccessfully, to calm the LT down. When I passed by, I asked if they needed any help. Yeah, one of the sergeants said, we need some moist wipes.

I had trouble sleeping that night. I kept telling myself, this can't be happening. I know that a good percentage of wartime casualties are caused by accidents. But to die because somebody was too stupid to know that you never treat a rifle like it's a fucking toy?

I was reminded of a memory from Basic Training. I was at the firing range. Those of you who've been through Basic know that at the firing range, Drill Sergeant doesn't mess around. You have to be on you best behavior and do everything you're told perfectly. It was like, my fifth trip to the firing range. So I knew what to do. After you've expended your ammo, and the guy in the tower says, "cease fire," you put your weapon on safe, clear it, and place the plastic bolt block into the chamber. But I don't know why I did this. After firing, I cleared the weapon, put in the bolt block, and then put the weapon on safe. One of the Drills noticed that I did it in the wrong order and started running toward me. It was one of the meanest Drill Sergeants at Fort Sill. A man so ugly, we called him "Skeletor" behind his back. He grabbed my helmet and jerked my head back. He yelled, "What the fuck are you doing, Private? You want to kill one of your battle buddies with an accidental discharge?" He pointed at the guy in the next lane. "Can you live with his death on your conscience?" I yelled the only thing I could say, "No, Drill Sergeant!" He added one last thing before spinning on his boot heel and walking away in disgust. "You will never stop seeing his face!"

The Army lost two soldiers that day. I truthfully think that I would rather trade places with the soldier in the grave than with the lieutenant who's most likely in a cell right now. Not only is his military career over, he will prolly go to prison, for a while. I can't imagine the Army taking it easy on him for this. When he gets out, he'll have a record. No one will remember his four months of good service in a war zone. They'll just remember his four seconds of absolute idiocy. I heard that even McDonald's won't hire a guy with a military felony. But worst of all, I think that Drill Sergeant is right. He will never stop seeing his face.

Everybody has moments when they're retarded. Everybody has a time when they look back at something they did and say, what the Hell was I thinking? Why did God, in his infinite wisdom, allow this young officer's stupidity to intersect with the end of this young soldier's life, on this point of tragedy?

My whole point is, everyone should cut Cheney some slack. I'm sure he feels bad enough for what he did. I know that some people out there equate Dick Cheney with Adolf Hitler, so my plea will fall on deaf ears. But if you're one of those people, you shouldn't really be reading my blog. Instead you should click on DailyKos or some other such bullshit.

Anyway, it's the Thursday before a four day weekend. So I'm gonna go drink! (Well, drink some more, anyway :-[ ...)

PEACE!