Sharpshooter by Chris Lynch Page B

line.
    â€œOfficer material,” the sergeant says calmly.
    Calmly? This surprises me a little bit. I expect a certain level of harshness, especially in the early going, from the noncommissioned officers. The NCOs are really the whips in the whole operation, making the vast numbers of lowly troops do the bidding of the Army — which you can trace all the way up the line right back to the brain of the commander in chief himself. And the usual way of keeping troops in line is with a constant barrage of verbal violence bordering on brutality. I expect it and almost feel a little let down here at not getting it.
    Wrong-footed right off the bus. Can’t be wrong-footed. Have to be ready for any-any-anything, even if it is an ambush of niceness.
    â€œYes, people, this is indeed a watercraft. The Benewah is your station. It is part of the Ninth Division’s collaborative effort with the Brown Water Navy, a barracks ship that functions just the same as a regular land-based barracks, housing approximately thirteen hundred personnel, including officers if you choose to include them — which I, personally, do not.”
    Again there is a ripple of laughter, this time more open as guys get quickly more relaxed about it.
    Except that I don’t. Discipline is what the Army is about, what it stands for. What it stands on . I don’t need the NCO to be my buddy, I need him to be my leader. And as for making jokes about the officers in front of these brand-new raw recruits …
    â€œThere a problem, private?” the sergeant screams in my face.
    That’s more like it.
    â€œNo, sir!” I shout.
    â€œWell, then, why are you not laughing at things that I say that are obviously of a humorous nature?” he shouts.
    â€œBecause I am a trained soldier at attention, sir!”
    The volume of the conversation drops when he sees I am taking this whole war thing kind of seriously.
    â€œFair enough, private,” he says. “At ease, men.” He starts walking up and down in front of us, then one by one shakes hands. “Now, you are going to encounter a great variance in the responses you get here in Vietnam, and I think it is an important part of my job to prepare you for some of that. Now, I, like all of you here, have been through CI school. That’s why you are here. The soldiers stationed on the Benewah are largely involved in Counter Insurgency. You are going to have to figure out, on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, on a minute-to-minute basis, who are the friendlies, and who are the animals you have to blast right off the face of the earth on sight.
    â€œBut enough about the Marines …”
    Now there is a joke I can laugh at. Wish Dad could have heard it.
    â€œSeriously, though, this is a message you are not necessarily going to receive from a lot of other NCOs around here, so do listen up, take note, and do what you will with the knowledge.”
    Suddenly, even with the sweat beginning to run down along where my sideburns should be, I get a little chill.
    â€œThe men around you are among some of the finest you will ever want to meet, but to be frank, the experience of fighting here for an extended period has a big effect on even the toughest soldiers. There are fewer lifers in this Army than there are in the regular force, because of the need to staff the war and still rotate people out of here within twelve months’ time. So you may find some people a little suspicious of you until they get to see what kind of soldier you really are. And, by the same token, you may feel the same way about the men you are required to fight alongside.
    â€œThere is going to be one primary thing about you, something that you are going to decide or that is going to be decided for you in the heat of action. And this quality is going to be figured out, in a hurry, by the men fighting shoulder to shoulder with you in the face of — let me tell you from personal experience — an