Summer Night June Bug

Wichita Falls, Texas - 1955

A poor Texas boy has three choices for toys: Tarantula, Trap Door Spiders, and June Bugs, by age eleven, I had already flattened every Tarantula within two miles of our house (with a shovel), but Trap Door Spiders were out of the question---they were too fast and looked like they stood more than an even chances of dragging me down that hole---and June Bugs ... what possible fun could they be?

I was sitting on our porch watching the mesquite bushes grow, bored, when my grandmother asked if I had ever flown a June Bug. She explained that if you tied some thread to their legs, careful now so you don't hurt'em, you could feed out the thread and fly'em like a kite! Neat-o!

Đà Nẵng Air Base - 1966

The Air Force had done its best to see that I was not bored, to the point of sending me to Vietnam and issuing me a monster of a German Shepherd K-9 sentry dog, Blackie. In 1966, there was only one active runway at Đà Nẵng Air Base, with a second under construction. Blackie (X129) and I were patrolling late one hot evening between the two runways ... and I was bored, sort of.

Vietnam, like Texas, had an assortment of bugs. At Đà Nẵng, there were fat cockroach type June Bugs that were pests around your tent, but you soon learned not to swat them---they green-gooed up worse than a squashed tomato worm, and smelled to high heaven. Anyway, I had noticed a bazillion or two of the thumb-knuckle sized bugs flying and crawling around my K-9 posts, and decided that I would see what kind of pilots the V.C. varmints were. I caught one, tied a piece of black thread I had borrowed from Mamasan to its hind leg, and launched it. Blackie watched, twisting his huge head side-to-side (What the ...), as the dark-brown bug fluttered drunkenly a few feet, then swirled ever upward.

So far, not bad. How about two of'em? The first was orbiting like a drunken mackerel (if that is possible) at twenty feet. The second bug buzzed off desperately about fifteen feet vertically and cratered in to the ground. Pedestrian born, he continued scurrying as I played out thread.

Okay. How about a third commie bug? The third zipped up and out, and buzzed in slow circles around Blackie and I. Blackie kept breathing in and out, puffing his cheeks just short of a bark, ears perked, more intent on the crawler who flopped around entangling himself further.

Hey ... this is fun! I ain't bored!

... and then the headlights of the approaching lieutenant's jeep caught us like deers in its arc. The SSgt stopped the jeep and he and the L-T got out, walked toward us and stopped about fifteen feet away --- k9-wise, when nearing sentry-dog. I had issued the proper, Halt! Who goes there?! and after the challenge and password, the L-T began asking the usual questions: Airman ... what's your first Security Instruction?

Wait! I know this one! Aha ... Sir, my first Security Instruction is I won't quit my post until properly relieved! The lieutenant continued his monologue, as the Sergeant began to notice that Blackie was obviously distracted by something else (he was looking straight up, puffing and flaring his cheeks---there was no moon).

The Sergeant's head was level, and he appeared to be listening to the lieutenant, but his eyes were raking his bushy eyebrows, left, right, left, right, like overactive windshield wipers tracking something overhead.

... Sergeant ... I said, 'Let's check the next post!'

Be right with you, Sir, he replied as the lieutenant climbed in to the jeep. The Sergeant looked at me with a smirk and said, "Poss -- you some kind of a Pinocchio, or something, with all them strings ever which way?"

Aha ... no, Sarge. I ... aha ..."

"Poss, stop by and see me after you put Blackie away in the morning ... we'll talk ... as you fortify some sandbags for me."