“Hey,” Doc said seriously, stoned serious. “You all pretty educated. Maybe you can tell me. I’ve asked sergeant majors, majors, captains, lieutenants, EMs, buck sergeants, master sergeants. Why do the army do this s**t? Huh? Huh?”
“What s**t?” Cherry asked.
“It’s bad enough we gotta come in the army and then leave the army and depart our friends. But the war … Why? Give me one good logical goddamned reason, Mista. One.”
“The war come, ah, the war comes before the army, ya know?” George said. Lamonte glared at him and shook his head and George added, “Well, maybe not.”
“I mean, like all the people you know in the World,” Doc said simply going on, oblivious to George, “Blond who used ta be up there. Way down there. Great guy, blond hair. Use ta always be drunk all the time …”
“Yeah.”
“
