The Boxer

You don’t get to know anybody very well in a 16-week basic training course and sometimes that is for the best. A member of the squad got a broken jaw one night in the latrine but no one would talk about it. We all figured it was the work of the local boys, who were in the minority and tended to defend each other vigorously.

After basic was over I stayed behind because I had qualified for Officer Candidate School and ran into one of those local boys on the street. I knew him only casually but I passed the time of day and asked how come he had not been shipped out to Korea like most of the rest of the guys in our unit.

He informed me he was assigned to special services and if I was interested I could see him that night. He was on the card at the Box Bowl, the base boxing arena. He was just a bantam weight but I had no doubt he was the one who produced that broken jaw in our squad latrine. I certainly was grateful as squad leader I had not crossed him during our training.