Tales of the Inadvertent Pacifist part 3

[Ishmael]

Tales of the Inadvertent Pacifist part 3

Action in Northern Nebraska


After the events of the Great Jewelry Heist of 1943, Ray and Dudley boarded a Greyhound Bus in New York for the trip out to San Francisco. The journey was tedious enough as the two settled in to the three-day odyssey. It was on the second overnight stop in a small town on Northern Nebraska that this story took place. Ray never remembered the name of the town, describing it only as, “A wide spot in the road�. Suffice to say that there wasn’t a whole lot going on in the form of nightlife, the kind of place where they rolled up the streets at sunset.

In this farming town, the only venue open that Saturday night was the local movie theatre. Once Ray and Dudley were settled in, they decided to go check out what was playing . Imagine their surprise as they approached and read what was on the marquee. The film showing that week in this charming backwater of Nebraska was, “Action in the North Atlantic�. starring Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart. The film purported to be a ripping action yarn about our fighting men in the Merchant Marine. Ray and Dudley looked at each other, smiled and decided that this they Had to see.

So the two intrepid travelers purchased their tickets, bought the usual accessories of popcorn and sodas and settled into their seats for the show. As the movie began, they were increasingly bemused by the “hokey� dialogue. However, when the characters first ship is torpedoed and the survivors were machine-gunned in the life boats by the evil U-boat crew, they couldn’t take any more and started laughing out loud. You have to understand that they had just spent the previous year and a half as merchant seamen in convoys across the Atlantic and Mediterranean on invasion forces for the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Salerno and Anzio in Italy. They knew other seamen who had survived torpedo attacks and knew U-boats never machine-gunned survivors since they seldom surfaced. This was because the boats would be vulnerable to attack by escorts and aircraft while exposed on the open sea. Of course, since the theatre was filled with locals, the two men’s reaction did not go unnoticed.

As the film progressed through the convoy to Murmansk and the wolf pack attack, the unintended humor increased. The sight of a Liberty ship slewing across the ocean like a destroyer was especially funny since those ships had a top speed of 12 knots at best in clear weather. This brought more gales of laughter from the two. The scenes of the navy gun crews valiantly battling the U-boats and German aircraft brought even more laughter since the gun crews they had served with couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn door. All this time, the rest of the crowd in the theatre were turning and looking at them with increasing hostility, unnoticed by Ray and Dudley.

What finally became the last straw for the two strangers was the cat-and-mouse game between the Liberty ship and the lone U-boat. This part of the film had the two holding their sides and laughing so hard that it was painful. While this went on, the rest of the crowd were getting increasingly incensed at the men and were now paying more attention to the two vagabond seafarers than to the film. Finally, as the film ended and the lights went up, Ray and Dudley were confronted by members of the crowd. They were seized by the angry patrons and told by the mob that they were taking them to the local sheriffs as Nazi saboteurs. Ray and Dudley, taken aback by all this, told them to hold on. They informed the crowd that they were actually the same merchant seamen as depicted in the film. Most of the patrons were not convinced so the two men actually had to produce their merchant seamen’s documents to prove their identities. Once they explained their backgrounds and the reasons for their laughter, the people released them with many apologies. The good folks of this small Nebraska town then took them out for an impromptu party and celebrated the real heroes in their midst. The following morning, they boarded their bus, somewhat hung-over and continued on to San Francisco.


© Richard Scott 2006 all rights reserved

[TLAM Strike]

LOL thats just a great story!

Keep these comming I've read and ejoyed all of them.

[Chad]

Good story, was waiting for this new addition

[Ishmael]

bumped for your reading pleasure