"Gustav Hasvord. The Short-Timers " - читать интересную книгу автора

heartbreakers. Just ask for the Lusthog Squad, first platoon. We shoot them
full of holes, bro. We fill them full of lead."
I grin. "Sergeant Gerheim would be proud to hear it."
"Yeah," Cowboy says, nodding his head. "Yeah, I guess so." He looks
away. "I hate Viet Nam. They don't even have horses here. Why, there's not
one horse in all of Viet Nam."
Cowboy turns away and introduces us to his squad: Alice, a black man as
big as Animal Mother; Donlon, the radioman; Lance Corporal Stutten, honcho
of the third fire team; Doc Jay, the squad's Navy corpsman; T.H.E. Rock; and
the leader of the Lusthog Squad, Crazy Earl.
Crazy Earl is carrying an M-16 Colt automatic rifle slung on his
shoulder, but in his hands is a Red Ryder BB gun. He's as skinny as a
death-camp survivor, and his face consists of a long, pointed nose with a
hollow cheek on each side. His eyes are magnified by thick lenses and one
arm of his gray Marine-issue eyeglasses has been wired back on with too much
wire. He says, "Saddle up," and the grunts start picking up their gear,
their M-16's and M-79 grenade launchers and captured AK-47 assault rifles,
their ruck-sacks, flak jackets, and helmets. Animal Mother picks up an M-60
machine gun and sets the butt into his hip so that the black barrel slants
up at a forty-five-degree angle. Animal Mother grunts. Crazy Earl turns to
Cowboy and says, "We better be moving, bro. Mr. Shortround will punch our
hearts out if we're late."
Cowboy is picking up his gear. "That's affirmative, Craze. But you got
to talk to Joker, man. We were on the island together. He'll write you up
and make you famous."
Crazy Earl looks at me. There is no expression on his face. "There it
is. They call me Crazy Earl. Gooks love me until I blow them away. Then they
don't love me anymore."
I grin. "There it is."
Crazy Earl grins, gives me a thumbs-up, says, "Moving, Cowboy," and
then leads his squad out of the theater.
Cowboy punches me on the shoulder. "That's my fearless leader, bro. I'm
the first fire-team leader. I'll be squad leader soon. I'm just waiting for
Craze to get wasted. Or maybe he'll just go plain fucking crazy. That's how
Craze got to be honcho. Ol' Stoke, he was our honcho before Craze. Ol'
Supergrunt. Went stark raving. Pretty soon it'll be my turn."
"Hey, you keep your shit together, Cowboy. You know you're a fool. You
know you can't take care of yourself. Remember how easy it was for me to zap
you when Sergeant Gerheim made me play sniper? I mean, the Crotch ought to
fly your mom over here so that she can go into the bush with you."
Cowboy takes a few steps toward the door, turns, waves goodbye, grins.
I give him the finger.


After Cowboy and his squad are gone, Rafter Man and I watch a "Pink
Panther" cartoon. Then we pick up our weapons and head for the PX, which
looks like another warehouse. We buy junk food; pogey bait.
As we wait to pay for our pogey bait with military payment
certificates, Rafter Man tries to find some words. "Joker, I want...I want
to go out. I want to go out into the field. I been in country for almost