Courage is Simple When Viewed From Afar.

My entire life has been plagued by men who display courage of a verbal nature, but when confronted face to face seem to wither on the vine. When I attended electronics school as a Marine, at Redstone arsenal in the late sixties, I belonged to a class of ten men who spent ten months training to become electronic and hydraulic technicians on the Marine Corps Hawk surface to air missile system.

I did not wish to be there, I instead wished to be with my friends who went to the grunts, 0311's, real men. The Naval services test each recruit when they enter bootcamp and based upon the results of the testing are assigned to a specific MOS, Military Occupation Specialty. My grades were high and so I was assigned to attend electronics school.

I had two choices, flunk out quickly and be sent to Viet Nam as a grunt, or stick out the schooling. Something in me would not allow me to flunk out and even though I would rather be elsewhere I finished the accelerated schooling at the bottom of my class.

The top of our class was a very intelligent individual named Swan and a really great fellow. The second highest scoring individual was a young man named Fenway. It was common knowledge within the class that Fenway reached his position in the class by cheating off of Swan and the worst thing about Fenway was that he bragged incessantly about how much better he was than the rest of the class. My grade of 85% was the lowest in the class, but it was an honest score.

For nine long months the class endured Fenway's mouth, and to a man we each were just itching to put him in his place. On the day of graduation the guest speaker of the graduation was Warner Van Braun, the father of the American space program. After the graduation like all good Marines we decided to celebrate by drinking a little beer at the local enlisted men's club on the base.

The celebration started out well but as the afternoon wore on and we began to feel the effects of the alcohol, Fenway began to brag incessantly about how he had scored second in the class. I finally had had enough and I read to him from the book about how everyone knew he was a cheat and fraud, and that he didn't deserve to be second highest in the class because he had cheated to get the grade.

His reaction was to throw a punch at me which I ducked and then grabbing me in a bear hug began to run carrying me with him and then slamming me into a brick wall. The only trouble was he didn't pin my arms and so I worked his face over pretty good with my fists, breaking his nose and closing both of his eyes.One of my most cherished photographs is of Fenway, lying in his bunk with his nose taped and popsicle sticks up his nostrals, taken by my friend John F. from Pontatoc, Mississippi, the Vacationland of the south.

I was the one who finally put Fenway in his place, I was the toast of the party and the celebration of the event continued on into the next morning. I had to be happy with the accolades of my friends, because over the next three and one half years Fenway who followed me to every duty station I went to during my enlistment, always made rank three months before me because my conduct and proficiency marks were lower than his because of the fight.

I do not regret breaking Fenways nose! I was worth it and I would do it again if I had the chance, because someone has to put a blowhard, loud mouth in his place.