Dubay was six foot three without much fat and broad as a door. A memorable presence, but kind of a bummer being born a giant bulls eye, which probably explains his purple heart.  He was pretty lucky as door gunners go since they had a high mortality rate – 50% or… Read full post »

to catch a former Bath official
was supposed to start when the gate
was forced open by the Squad,
but the mechanized Calvary
had another idea
crushing the gate and two cars
with a tank
they almost rolled over
the old female
screaming Arabic
nonsense syllables,
only receiving the butt end
… Read full post »

He was known as “Michelangelo”

to his Unit in Baghdad,

being a guy who drew

with prodigious talent

a Master’s vision

on everything that was his canvas,

and calculated

going to Fine Art School,

when his tour was over

and… Read full post »

(The suppression of truth, the suggestion of a falsehood)

On his second SE Asia tour

Captain Charles  E. Shelton’s

RF101C Reconnaissance Voodoo

Filming near

The Sam Neu area

Took a belly hit

His wingman affirming

“Roger. You are on fire.”

And so blew his canopy

Punching… Read full post »

Hit with an AK round

Through his lung

At the “Alamo”

The PFC was evacuated

To the 1^st Medical Bn

Danang triage

Semi-reclining lawn chair

Where they cut his clothes

And ID’d his tags

Leaving him naked

In line for surgery… Read full post »

They won’t talk about it

when asked what they feel

dropping bombs

on apartment buildings,

“A slight bump to the wing”

is all you’ll get.

They won’t talk about

the wounded Iraqi who

gets tagged “Range Ball”

because who talks about losing… Read full post »

The children of Gaza

play under miniature planes,

the size of peas,

glinting sometimes

as they embroider

a lethal blanket

in the blue skies

above Gaza’s streets.

The children persist

to grow and play,

while stunted,… Read full post »