A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School

114Brinker slid his fingers into the back pockets of his slacks. "This war's so technical they'vegot to use all kinds of machines, even sewing machines, don't you think so, Gene?""Well," Mr. Hadley went on emphatically, "I can't imagine any man in my time settling forduty on a sewing machine. I can't picture that at all." Then his temper switched tracks and hesmiled cordially again. "But then times change, and wars change. But men don't change, dothey? You boys are the image of me and my gang in the old days. It does me good to see you.What are you enlisting in, son," he said, meaning me, "the Marines, the Paratroops? There aredoggone many exciting things to enlist in these days. There's that bunch they call the Frogmen,underwater demolition stuff. I'd give something to be a kid again with all that to choose from.""I was going to wait and be drafted," I replied, trying to be polite and answer his questionhonestly, "but if I did that they might put me straight in the infantry, and that's not only thedirtiest but also the most dangerous branch of all, the worst branch of all. So I've joined theNavy and they're sending me to Pensacola. I'll probably have a lot of training, and I'll never seea foxhole. I hope.""Foxhole" was still a fairly new term and I wasn't sure Mr. Hadley knew what it meant. ButI saw that he didn't care for the sound of what I said. "And then Brinker," I added, "is all set forthe Coast Guard, which is good too." Mr. Hadley's scowl deepened, although his experiencedface partially masked it."You know, Dad," Brinker broke in, "the Coast Guard does some very rough stuff, puttingthe men on the beaches, all that dangerous amphibious stuff."His father nodded slightly, looking at the floor, and then said, "You have to do what youthink is the right thing, but just make sure it's the right thing in the long run, and not just for themoment. Your war memories will be with you forever, you'll be asked about them thousands oftimes after the war is over. People will get their respect for you from that—partly from that,don't get me wrong—but if you can say that you were up front where there was some realshooting going on, then that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come. I know you boyswant to see plenty of action, but don't go around talking too much about being comfortable,and which branch of the service has too much dirt and stuff like that. Now I know you—I feel Iknow you, Gene, as well as I know Brink here—but other people might misunderstand you.You want to serve, that's all. It's your greatest moment, greatest privilege, to serve yourcountry. We're all proud of you, and we're all—old guys like me—we're all darn jealous of youtoo."I could see that Brinker was more embarrassed by this than I was, but I felt it was hisresponsibility to answer it. "Well, Dad," he mumbled, "we'll do what we have to.""That's not a very good answer, Brink," he said in a tone struggling to remain reasonable."After all that's all we can do.""You can do more! A lot more. If you want a military record you can be proud of, you'll do aheck of a lot more than just what you have to. Believe me."