American Bon Bon

American Bon Bon

Staff Sergeant Polnick had the top half of his body sticking out of the Bradley M2A3. It is a 36 ton armored vehicle similar to a tank, but without the speed, firepower, armor and low profile. They were cruising along getting derailed. at the top speed of about 40 miles an hour, which made it harder for snipers to hit them, on the outskirts of a desert smaller town in Iraq. The Marines had secured the area, but the Army was holding it down with routine patrols that could be deadly on such main transit supply roads in and out of town to bigger supply depots. They went by a soccer field. Kids were lined up the side of the road, screaming, ‘America, bon bon. America bon bon.’ They were requesting the small pieces of candy the soldiers got in their Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s.) Various vehicles in the convoy threw out the sweets to the children below. SSG Polnick meant to be kind. They all did. The snack pack of M&M’s hit a girl in the face and exploded. Kids scattered around her picking up the pieces. SSG Polnick couldn’t help but laugh. It’s not that he was sadistic. The Army, especially being a Cavalry Scout, was a horrible job fit for him psychologically, but he cared about his enlisted men. He was temporarily the platoon dad in charge of not only the lower ranking EM’s but also the Non-Commissioned Officers and, in full reality, the ‘butter bar’ Lieutenant officially in charge of the platoon straight out of ROTC at Texas State. He felt like an impostor.

There is a sort of dark sense of humor that develops in the macho mentality of scouts, if not the entire military in general. SSG Polnick told and relived the story over and over that night on base to his privates that looked up to him like a grizzled saint. The truth is he was leading troops through combat despite having only a brief experience in Peace Keeping missions. Somalia did go to shit, but was short-lived. The Balkan conflicts kept going. but the spirits of the people were broken from a massive bombing campaign. The mass killings and destruction made it was easier for the NATO Peace Keeping force that replaced the French forces. The French were getting their asses handed to them. He was in way over his head, but could at best only hint at it to Top, the First Sergeant of the Troop. Top in turn felt in over his head and could only hint at it to the Sergeant Major, who was in Vietnam and not in over his head, but sick of the entire bullshit after his heart had come to soften. The angel of death tattooed on a section of skin hidden in his upper left back shoulder blade was still fairly taboo, by military standard. He was smart enough to not deface military property and made sure it was small enough to be hidden in even PT’s. Life is often a digression, like a run-on sentence getting derailed in it’s train of thought… It’s just life. Everybody dies. They don’t all pay taxes, but everyone dies. SSG Polnick struggled with it. “Die young and leave a good looking corpse, or better yet, go FUBAR, but quickly,” he was known for saying.

The next day SSG Polnick was escorting a convoy DLA civilians and contractors back to the depot with his men. On the way out of town, he ran into a reason to stop telling the M&M story to his men. He didn’t talk about it much after the Army, until he was held up in building 19 at the VA in Battle Creek for PTSD. The children they gave candy to were lined up on the side of the road lying down. It only took him a split second for reality to set in. They were all shot dead for taking candy from the soldiers. Many were killed by their parents themselves. Soldiers who soften up kids into liking them by giving them candy often find kids can talk a lot. The information can be valuable to Military Intelligence, and while it is not by design, it does come in handy. The enemy had a solution to this. Teach the kids a lesson. Don’t take candy from soldiers, or you will be killed like Billal, Farsa and 22 other children now dead roadside. The wind of the operations produced tears in all the NCO’s that day. There are heavy metals in the air of this town. The gunner put on Merciful Fate over the headsets whenever they went past that roadside from then on. It just seemed appropriate. Here true evil reigned, and they weren’t entirely sure it wasn’t them deep down inside.