I have a little story about myself...It has nothing to do with the our government but about his title, " I'd rather fight than eat!"
Back when I was spending 2 years of my time (1956-58) with the US Army at Fort Leonard Wood, MIssouri...I was part of a class of students learning the fine art of self defense...called Karate... Our sensi,(Teacher), Victor Lemire was a drafted Arizona Highway patrolman...He studied karate with another Arizona officer...Captain Robert Trias who acquired a 9th degree black belt while serving duty in China ... Trias brought Karate to the US and opened up a school called American Karate...
I was in fine fighting shape back then (165 lbs. and 6 feet tall) and I enjoyed learning how to kill or maim another person with my bare hands or feet or elbows or knees in seconds ...I became quite good at this...This class was not a part of my Army duties...It was a volunteer class...There was nine of us...We worked out mostly at night in an old storage shed... which our company commander (Captain Nicholson) allowed us to use...He also wanted to learn this extraordinary art of killing people...So we benefitted from his rank and power...We covered the floor with old hospital mattresses and covered them with a large tarp... He also provided us with Judo Gis (work out clothes) which his wife made for us...Little did we know that we were the first Karate school ever to be allowed to function in the US Army (main land)...We were written up by the fort newspaper back then which made its way to the Army Times...(the year was 1957)...I digress...
One weekend 5 of us decided to load up a friend's 1953 Chevy BelAir go on a 3 day fishing trip to Lake of the Ozarks, which was about 60 miles south of the fort...We drove the back roads down to our rental cabin and when we crossed the state line a stray bullet ricocheted off our front window which was probably shot by a deer hunter...Of course we stopped and looked around (carefully) and decided o keep going... shortly we came upon a honkytonk back in the boondocks and we decided to have a moon pie and beer or two...
We were drinking and laughing when a Harly pulls up outside with a young burly rider and his cute girlfriend in Tshirt and torn, worn jeans...They ventured in and immediately this little honey stated flirting with our group...The more she flirted the more her boyfriend fumed...Finally one of our party , am old staff sargent named Larry went over to the lad at the bar and asked him to calm down...at which time... he jumped in front of us at our table and shouted,"I'd rather fight than eat!"
Larry calmly walked in front to him and said "Son...You're talking to the wrong group if its a fight you want...My friends here would rather eat (and drink) that fight...You see...these boys are not trained to fight...they're trained to kill...and then we all stood up and smiled at the the young red neck...and Larry said "how about we buy you and your girlfriend a beer and something to eat?
There was a log pause and the young biker grabbed his girlfriend's arm a stalked out the door...And "varoom varoom"... away they rode...
We didn't catch many fish that weekend but came back with some good memories...
This was my diploma...
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