PFC
Klinkenberg was my platoon leader when I was at the United States Army Aviation
School. He would march us from our barracks to the school, and he was
noted for being creative with cadence counts.
Instead of the
tried-and-true "Give me your left, your left, your left-right-left!",
he had us sing the Addams Family theme song while we marched, complete with finger snaps.
One day, PFC Klinkenberg
announced that his brother had been killed in Vietnam. When I watched him pack
his duffel bag, I thought he was leaving
to go to the funeral --- but he was actually leaving the Army.
PFC Klinkenberg was
leaving the Army because he was a Sole Surviving Son. I did not fully understand that concept until
40 years later, when I visited Waterloo, Iowa.
I walked into the Iowa
Veterans Museum in Waterloo, and right in front of me was a full-size replica
of the prow of a US Navy cruiser, painted in camoflage colors and busting through the wall of the lobby.
It was a copy of the prow
of the USS Juneau, sunk in the Pacific in 1942.
On board were George Sullivan, Frank Sullivan, Joe Sullivan, Matt
Sullivan, and Al Sullivan. They were
brothers; they were from Waterloo; none of them survived the sinking.
I walked past the prow and
into the museum, dedicated to Iowa veterans from the Civil War to the
present. I liked the museum: it was not too big and not too
small.
The Vietnam section
reverberated with me: they had a UH-1 helicopter on display. It was not a shiny UH-1 --- it was worn and
even had bird droppings on it, making it feel real. I spent a lot of
time staring at the helicopter; the United States Army Aviation School had
trained me to repair this type of helicopter, but fate had kept me away from
helicopters and away from Vietnam.
The Civil War exhibit also
reverberated.
Over half the male population of Iowa was in uniform, which meant that women had to run farms and raise families by themselves during the Civil War.
The story was told through the eyes of a little farm boy whose father was away at war. At sundown his mother went out to round up the grazing cows and bring them back to the barn. I felt the boy's anguish as he described standing at the window of an upstairs bedroom and watching his mother go out in search of the cows. He would continue standing at the window, transfixed by fear, hoping that his mother would come back.
Over half the male population of Iowa was in uniform, which meant that women had to run farms and raise families by themselves during the Civil War.
The story was told through the eyes of a little farm boy whose father was away at war. At sundown his mother went out to round up the grazing cows and bring them back to the barn. I felt the boy's anguish as he described standing at the window of an upstairs bedroom and watching his mother go out in search of the cows. He would continue standing at the window, transfixed by fear, hoping that his mother would come back.
I walked through the
displays for World War One and World War Two.
I noticed a subtle hint in the displays: Iowans were called upon in
difficult battle situations. If there
was an impregnable enemy machine gun nest, the military would call upon Iowans
to attack and wipe it out.
I wondered if it was
because the military thought Iowans were tough fighters – or if the military thought that Iowans were expendable…
My walk through the museum ended on the second floor. Walking past a sculpture of all five Sullivan brothers, I stepped out onto on the full-size replica of the prow of the Navy cruiser and gazed into the lobby below.
I realized that the five
Sullivan brothers from Waterloo had cast a long shadow.
After World War Two, the
military did not station siblings together.
After World War Two, if a family lost a child in a war, the family would
not lose another child in that war.
That is why the Army made sure that PFC Klinkenberg was out of harm’s way and sent him home for good.
That is why the Army made sure that PFC Klinkenberg was out of harm’s way and sent him home for good.
We continued to march from our barracks to the United States Army Aviation School, and, fortunately, our new platoon leader had us sing the Addams Family theme song while we marched.
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A 5-minute video tour of the museums in Waterloo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCDJ32LuNmk
The lyrics to the Addams Family theme song (1.5 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJoTEliQcU
The lyrics to the Addams Family theme song (1.5 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJoTEliQcU
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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath. Price = $11. You can purchase a copy at http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com
