“From this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered. We, lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother.”
Henry the Fifth
The Doris Mae left the dock promptly at 7 that morning with a good mix of New Jersey’s and Pennsylvania’s best aboard. We shoved off with high hopes that big bluefish would be boiling in the chum slick.
The party boat passed Barnegat Inlet lighthouse close to starboard and her captain, Ron Eble, pointed the bow into the flood tide ripping through the channel. Eble throttled up Doris Mae’s triple turbocharged diesels to a roar, power you could feel through the deck. The horizon to the east was alight in a blaze of red, orange, and yellow. Fishermen huddled aft of the boat’s superstructure shielding themselves from the early morning chill, some smoking, some gazing seaward, others chatting enthusiastically about the fishing reports from earlier in the week.
I dressed in my slicker bottoms and boots. Fishing for blues when chumming is always a messy venture – there’s blood, bait and chum from bow to stern when the fishing is good, the mates ladling a a soupy mash of ground fish chunks and guts over the side and gaffing each hooked fish any way they can to haul them over the rail.
We cleared the inlet and steered northeast to the Mud Hole, a big depression in the seabed known to congregate fish. It would be a long ride out, but past reports buzzed that it was the place to be.
After dressing, I went back aft and came upon three men seated around the top of a big cooler where a game of dominoes was in play. They joked and laughed with each other as men are apt to do when playing board or card games. I approached and engaged the apparent senior of the three in conversation. He was wearing a dark blue ball cap, with “US Navy WWII Veteran” embroidered on it. Thanking him for his service, I asked in a joking way what he had in his “water bottle”, the color of the liquid being the rich brown of bourbon. The old greying veteran let out a deep belly laugh in response. After talking about his service, the conversation turned to my own. “You see” he said to his two veteran friends, “I knew he was an officer”… The men chuckled as if they knew too.
We all talked on as the dominoes game unfolded. Before me sat a Navy WWII veteran, an Army Korean War veteran, and a Marine Vietnam veteran. We joked about the services represented – Navy men always having a clean comfortable bunk and hot chow at sea, the Army being second rate to the Marines, the Marines being a part of the Department of the Navy – the good-natured banter carried through the day even while we fished. And with that I felt that I was one with them, a privilege not forgotten and greatly treasured for these three barbers represented three generations of the best of America from three wars – WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam – all African American and all working out of the same barbershop in downtown Philadelphia.
Veteran’s Day is a day to honor those who served, who heeded the call, voluntarily or involuntarily, and who did what our country asked them to do, no questions asked. Three barbers served the span of some 30 years of military duty, fought far from home in foreign lands, across vast seas and I had the honor to enjoy their company that day. I’ll remember that trip for the opportunity to meet these three who fought and served, witnessed the best and worst of mankind, and returned home and settled into the everyday oblivion that is America.
The fishing was good – we slaughtered them – the blues as thick as thieves in the chum slick. But it wasn’t the fishing that engraved the memory of those three veterans in my mind, heart and soul. While fishing has its own bonding experience, there is nothing like the military that forms connections lasting a lifetime. Veterans serve their country but fight for each other, and in so doing, become a band of brothers.
I’d like to believe that I left the Doris Mae that day, and the three barbers, a lucky man, and luckier still if I had the honor to be considered by them, a brother in arms.
Men, it’s been a long war, it’s been a tough war. You’ve fought bravely, proudly for your country. You’re a special group. You’ve found in one another a bond, that exists only in combat, among brothers. You’ve shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments. You’ve seen death and suffered together. I’m proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace.
General Officer speaking to his men in the movie, “Band of Brothers”
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