MILITARY MAN


They won't let me play there. Just because I didn't give 20 years of service to my country. Hey, but I did. Try teaching high school and a little bit of college for 30 years and tell me I didn't give service to my country. But they don't understand.

They is Falcon Dunes Golf Course at Luke Air Force Base. Where I played two rounds of golf last week. Only eligible because I played with a 20-year veteran friend in town visiting. Excellent course conditions, excellent price, but now I'm denied until his return. All because they don't count teaching as hazardous or sacrificial as military duty.

I have a lot of friends who served in Viet Nam and other theatres. Not many were wounded. Thankfully. But I was shot at school. In the back. While we were on strike in 1986. A high powered Chinese air rifle was the weapon. The culprit was caught and along with another weapons charge spent some time in prison.

As for me, the wound was a flesh wound, but like in the Westerns, he only grazed me. It didn't feel much worse than a bee sting, but one of the officers told me that under the right conditions and in the right spot, it could have killed me.

So I think I should be able to pay and play at Falcon Dunes. But rules is rules. And I expended so much effort not to be a military man, maybe I deserve my banishment.

Happy Columbus Day to all. I guess he wasn't a veteran either. Oh well. He served his country anyhow. Just like teachers. Well, maybe not just like.