Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Payback

In Saigon, I worked in MACV headquarters as a Lieutenant. My boss was an Army Major and his boss was a Marine Lt. Colonel. Along with others of their grade, they spent almost every evening drinking themselves into a stupor in the officers club .

The Lt. Colonel had extremely short hair and made of point of telling me I needed a haircut whenever he happened to see me. Sometimes he would vary the message by informing me that my sideburns were too long or perhaps castigating me for the vile offense of having my hands in my pockets.

I wasted no time getting around to exploring Saigon and quickly became known as the go-to guy for trips downtown. After several months, the Lt. Colonel approached me and asked if I could show him around downtown Saigon sometime.

I said, "I'm sorry sir, but the Vietnamese just don't have much use for guys with really short hair. Why don't you get back to me after you've let your hair grow out a bit."