A Missed Connection, A Beautiful Life

 

From a Craig’s List “Missed Connections” board:

I met you in the rain on the last day of 1972, the same day I resolved to kill myself. One week prior, at the behest of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, I’d flown four B-52 sorties over Hanoi. I dropped forty-eight bombs. How many homes I destroyed, how many lives I ended, I’ll never know. But in the eyes of my superiors, I had served my country honorably, and I was thusly discharged with such distinction.

And so on the morning of that New Year’s Eve, I found myself in a barren studio apartment on Beacon and Hereford with a fifth of Tennessee rye and the pang of shame permeating the recesses of my soul. When the bottle was empty, I made for the door and vowed, upon returning, that I would retrieve the Smith & Wesson Model 15 from the closet and give myself the discharge I deserved.

I walked for hours. I looped around the Fenway before snaking back past Symphony Hall and up to Trinity Church. Then I roamed through the Common, scaled the hill with its golden dome, and meandered into that charming labyrinth divided by Hanover Street. By the time I reached the waterfront, a charcoal sky had opened and a drizzle became a shower. That shower soon gave way to a deluge. While the other pedestrians darted for awnings and lobbies, I trudged into the rain. I suppose I thought, or rather hoped, that it might wash away the patina of guilt that had coagulated around my heart. It didn’t, of course, so I started back to the apartment.

And then I saw you…

Read the entire moving memory here.

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There are 28 comments.

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  1. kelsurprise Member
    kelsurprise
    @kelsurprise

    Sorry, I’ve . . .  got something in my eye . . .

    A lovely story.   Thanks for sharing that, Jon.

    • #1
  2. Archie Campbell Member
    Archie Campbell
    @ArchieCampbell

    Heartwarming, unless the last line turns out to be “…and shot you instead.”

    • #2
  3. Addiction Is A Choice Member
    Addiction Is A Choice
    @AddictionIsAChoice

    Powerful! (Read the whole thing!) Thank you, Jon!

    • #3
  4. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    Somehow I think she didn’t marry the guy, either, so perhaps two lives saved. Thanks, Jon.

    • #4
  5. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Lovely.

    • #5
  6. M. King Inactive
    M. King
    @MKing

    Memories, lost like tears in the rain.

    • #6
  7. Manfred Arcane Inactive
    Manfred Arcane
    @ManfredArcane

    Wow.  Ricochet rocks.  Thanks, JG.

    • #7
  8. Big Ern Inactive
    Big Ern
    @BigErn

    [Redacted for CoC] I don’t buy it for a minute. That story couldn’t be more fake [Redacted for CoC]. The author should be “discharged” for trying pass off fiction as an authentic memory.

    • #8
  9. Dustoff Inactive
    Dustoff
    @Dustoff

    Sometimes it really is the moment that matters, that remains. And the what ifs? They can place unwarranted demands on what was. Good story. Good man.

    With all due respect of course BIG ERN

    • #9
  10. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    Big Ern:[Redacted for CoC] I don’t buy it for a minute. That story couldn’t be more fake [Redacted for CoC]. The author should be “discharged” for trying pass off fiction as an authentic memory.

    So you didn’t like it?

    • #10
  11. ConservativeFred Member
    ConservativeFred
    @

    I don’t believe it is real, but I enjoyed it.

    • #11
  12. TeamAmerica Member
    TeamAmerica
    @TeamAmerica

    When I clicked on your link, I got this- This IP has been automatically blocked. If you have questions, please email: blocks-b1440189286000332@craigslist.org

    • #12
  13. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    Very well written. I’m dubious about the opening. Four sorties in one week? And he goes from Guam (or Thailand) back to the world and is honorably discharged and contemplating suicide all within two weeks, assuming he flew his 4 sorties on the first 4 days of the operation.

    • #13
  14. Sabrdance Member
    Sabrdance
    @Sabrdance

    Yeah.  Good story.  Heartwarming.  Not sure it’s true.  But, if it is, best of luck to him in finding his once guardian angel.

    • #14
  15. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    An odd reason for thinking it possibly untrue: Having had a bit of connection to Bostoniana at one point, it’s hard to imagine that if the soirée had been a Brahmin event, within a day or so, the Globe (or Herald – not sure which) would not have had a society article about the lovely evening hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Cabot Lodge Cabot IV, with “guests including…and their nephew Heatherington Wentworth and his fiancée ♥♥♥♥.”

    Then again, a guy just back from The Swamp might not have been a regular reader of that section of the paper.

    • #15
  16. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Steve C.:Very well written. I’m dubious about the opening. Four sorties in one week? And he goes from Guam (or Thailand) back to the world and is honorably discharged and contemplating suicide all within two weeks, assuming he flew his 4 sorties on the first 4 days of the operation.

    My brother was on Guam about that time. He said 3 B-52s would land, then 3 take off, then 3 land, then 3 take off – 24 hours a day.

    • #16
  17. captainpower Inactive
    captainpower
    @captainpower

    TeamAmerica:When I clicked on your link, I got this- This IP has been automatically blocked. If you have questions, please email: blocks-b1440189286000332@craigslist.org

    http://web.archive.org/web/20151003064933/http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/mis/5237173491.html

    https://archive.is/XZc8r

    https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fboston.craigslist.org%2Fgbs%2Fmis%2F5237173491.html&anno=2

    and via google

    Craigslist Love Story

    • #17
  18. Ball Diamond Ball Member
    Ball Diamond Ball
    @BallDiamondBall

    Not clicking on Craigslist. No doubt we’ll see this story again twenty years ago.

    • #18
  19. Ball Diamond Ball Member
    Ball Diamond Ball
    @BallDiamondBall

    Smoke at 30,000+ feet? By the timeline, these would be Linebacker II missions.

    • #19
  20. kelsurprise Member
    kelsurprise
    @kelsurprise

    As my dad likes to say, “why ruin a good story with the facts?”

    • #20
  21. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Eeyore:

    Steve C.:Very well written. I’m dubious about the opening. Four sorties in one week? And he goes from Guam (or Thailand) back to the world and is honorably discharged and contemplating suicide all within two weeks, assuming he flew his 4 sorties on the first 4 days of the operation.

    My brother was on Guam about that time. He said 3 B-52s would land, then 3 take off, then 3 land, then 3 take off – 24 hours a day.

    I don’t believe your brother, either. Everyone knows that so many B-52s on Guam would cause the island to tip over.

    • #21
  22. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Man With the Axe:

    Eeyore:

    Steve C.:Very well written. I’m dubious about the opening. Four sorties in one week? And he goes from Guam (or Thailand) back to the world and is honorably discharged and contemplating suicide all within two weeks, assuming he flew his 4 sorties on the first 4 days of the operation.

    My brother was on Guam about that time. He said 3 B-52s would land, then 3 take off, then 3 land, then 3 take off – 24 hours a day.

    I don’t believe your brother, either. Everyone knows that so many B-52s on Guam would cause the island to tip over.

    You’ll have to remember, Axe, this was the early 70’s, prior to the Great Mariana Plate Entorquement of the 1980s. It was a Johnson-level event, which destabilized the insular rotational resistance of the entire region.

    • #22
  23. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Eeyore: It was a Johnson-level event,

    Does that mean “about waist-high?”

    • #23
  24. captainpower Inactive
    captainpower
    @captainpower

    Man With the Axe: Everyone knows that so many B-52s on Guam would cause the island to tip over.

    context for proper mockery

    http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/04/rep-hank-johnson-thinks-guam-could-capsize

    http://dailysignal.com/2010/04/01/video-congressman-thinks-the-island-of-guam-could-tip-over/

    Congressman Hank Johnson, D-Georgia: my fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated [ from the addition of US troops etc] that it will tip over and capsize.

    Admiral Robert Willard: We don’t anticipate that … the Guam population I think currently about 175,000 and again with 8,000 Marines and their families it’s an addition of about 25,000 more into the population.

    • #24
  25. Ball Diamond Ball Member
    Ball Diamond Ball
    @BallDiamondBall

    I blame Bush.

    • #25
  26. Manfred Arcane Inactive
    Manfred Arcane
    @ManfredArcane

    Eeyore:

    Man With the Axe:

    Eeyore:

    Steve C.:Very well written. I’m dubious about the opening. Four sorties in one week? And he goes from Guam (or Thailand) back to the world and is honorably discharged and contemplating suicide all within two weeks, assuming he flew his 4 sorties on the first 4 days of the operation.

    My brother was on Guam about that time. He said 3 B-52s would land, then 3 take off, then 3 land, then 3 take off – 24 hours a day.

    I don’t believe your brother, either. Everyone knows that so many B-52s on Guam would cause the island to tip over.

    You’ll have to remember, Axe, this was the early 70′s, prior to the Great Mariana Plate Entorquement of the 1980s. It was a Johnson-level event, which destabilized the insular rotational resistance of the entire region.

    Yeah, forgot about that.  Good catch.

    • #26
  27. Ball Diamond Ball Member
    Ball Diamond Ball
    @BallDiamondBall

    Man With the Axe:

    Eeyore: It was a Johnson-level event,

    Does that mean “about waist-high?”

    Still chortling in my lair.

    • #27
  28. Fastflyer Inactive
    Fastflyer
    @Fastflyer

    I have to wave the BS flag on this one. The standard load during 1972 of a B-52D big belly mod was 108 bombs. The external payload was 24 750 pound bombs, the internal capacity was 84 500 pound bombs. Dropping 48 bombs in four missions is a joke.

    • #28
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