I wrote this after listening to Marty Robbins sing “The Big Iron” from an album of cowboy tunes: Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. Here’s the link:
https://youtu.be/zzICMIu5zFY
The Big Iron is, of course, a reference to the gun on Marty’s hip but also to the guy’s manhood, so to speak. And they were all rough tough men. When I was a kid, I worshipped these cowboys – Chuck Conners, Paladin, Johnny Yuma, Steve McQueen, the cook on Wagon Train, etc.
One time I went with my older brother Pat on an American Legion–sponsored trip: a big load of kids and several American Legionnaires sitting up front and jabbering with the driver. We were going to a rodeo up by Rockford or some such. Of course they told us to pee before we left because it was a long drive and we didn’t have a bathroom or even a pissoir. Well, us kids were O.K. with that, but one Legionnaire had to pee real bad at some point, and we were on a tight schedule – the driver didn’t want to stop. So, this is what they did: The bus driver opened the door with the bus going down the road at about 60 miles an hour. Then two guys held onto the urinator’s belt while he leaned out the door and took a whiz. Now that was impressive!
Then we got to the rodeo and saw the show, and afterwards we got to meet the featured TV cowboy, whose name I can’t remember. I think he did some roping tricks between events (bulldogging, steer-pitching, and so forth). All the kids gathered around him and looked at him with awe. I was close enough to touch his gun, but I didn’t. It looked pretty powerful. After that, some kids were saying, “I touched him! I touched him!” So I went and got back in the bus and sat next to my brother, who was waiting to leave. I said, “Hey, I touched him!” He turned and said, “So what?” He was a cool cat.
The Everlasting Now 
Did you see Eric Wittenberg Facebook message about how Henry Heth and John Buford were present at an event, before the civil war at the battle of ash hollow?
Then I pointed out that at the so-called battle of ash hollow, Harney, Heth , and Buford massacred 80 Indians, half of them old men, women and children.
I also pointed out that the topographical engineer from Fort Laramie Lieutenant G. K. Warren gathered up the mangled wounded Indians, and carried them to a stream where he tended to their wounds as well as possible. The Sioux still remember warrens humanity
That was the end of the discussion between Eric and his friends
Bryce
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I saw the post. People like the topographical engineer and the helicopter pilot who landed at My Lai are what this nation needs. Thanks, Bryce!
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Warren showed his humanity onto other occasions. In late November 1863 George Meade was facing Robert Lee at a place called Mine run, Virginia. The Union plan was to launch an attack by warren who was in charge of a couple of army corps. If Warren had attacked, there would have been a butchery as bad as the December 13, 1862 slaughter of Fredericksburg. Warren observed the soldiers who were to make the attack. He saw them writing their names on slips of paper so they’d be identifiable after they were killed in the attack. At the appointed hour for the attack, Warren canceled it.
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How one person can kill another is a mystery to me, much less all this military butchery, and it’s still going on today. What the hell? I read a book called Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes, that’s a great account of a platoon-level outfit that is fucked over by the brass in their slagging it out with the NLF. Marlantes relates his horror of the killing he signed up to do, and he shows the development of a mindset of murderous intent toward the brass. Marlantes suffered from PTSD for decades, I think, and he’s doing much better now. Apparently there are lots of people who didn’t come out as well.
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