For a guy in the middle of such a grave disaster, it was surprising to see that cunning look in his eyes. ************* Lonestar. Just 2 months ago he was the happiest man in the whole world. His childhood crush had finally agreed to marry him, after being dumped by her 'popular' boyfriend. Gump, we gave him that name for his naiveness after the movie Forrest Gump, was the only soldier so happy to be reunited at our base after getting emergency call from the headquarter. We were taking off from our base camp(of the 75th Infantry Division) to a small French Province to support our fellow troops, 3rd Armored Division. We were to make a silent entrance in a small forest, notorious for all kinds of deseases. Everybody hung there head during the routine commando address, except Gump, he was elated. Later he told us how happy he was to be united with his 'brothers' and how happily he is expecting his return to his small town where he could marry the love of his life. The first time I ever saw Gump so happy was during the time we were first enlisted in the service, when we were spared by our 'Seniors' to mingle amongst ourselves after weeks of freshmen 'ragging'. The first day nobody talked to each other, just healing the bruise caused by excessive stone crawlings, monkey ropings and front rolls. Gump almost died when he couldn't finish the tenth lap of the army field, carrying two heavy rifles on his back. He was severely kicked on his belly by the sergeants. We nursed the poor guy, beginning day two. Some of us would put some soaked towel on his head, others would take care of his routine medicines. It took 4 days to get the old bastard up and jumping, and boy was he happy. He was so much thankful for all the care he got, he even thanked the sergeants who punished him for bestowing such and oppertunity to mingle with the band of brothers. For next few nights, he would just call us all up and give a speech on how much he appreciated everything. With tears on his eyes, he would say that he never got such a love from anybody else. An orphan, he never learned the act of socializing and thus was an object of bullying from all the village kids. He never made any friend while growing up, except for the girl he liked so much. She was the only one who would even talk to him, just like in Forrest Gump. But she wouldn't accept his proposal, until recently, 2 months back. He still tells everyone, winning the love of his life was like getting everything he wanted. First the acceptance from his friend, second the hand of his heartbeat. It had been almost a month, however, he hadn't gotten any of her letter. Sure we would happily greet Gump, but I didn't see anybody in the camp, being so close to him. We would like to hear his stories, but I don't remember anybody sharing his story to Gump. When we would go to the secret outings, we called fly-outs, he'd be the only one sleeping in the restricted camp. Once when we were cought coming back from such an outing, everybody soaked in local booze, we were lined up in that gravel road to complete our 100 front rolls; suddenly Gump shows up and lines himself up in the group as well, ready to complete the 100 rolls he dreaded so much. He later told that he couldn't see his brothers sharing a pain amongst themselves while he is sitting in his cabin watching us. He never showed any remorse towards us, fornot taking him along for the fly-out. Now he is kneeling down with a hand grenade clinched in his fist, pushing the pin with his thumb. As soon as he releases it, everybody in his proximity will blow up to smithers, in the middle of the jungle. *********************