The figures of last month's sales are easy to compare with that of last year for same period. In the light-truck category which includes SUVs, pickups, and vans; sales figure soared by 14.8 percent last month compared to the sales performance for October last year. The gains in the truck segment exceeded the 2.9% falloff in car sales. Moreover, the automotive industry increased its sales by 6.1 percent over October 2005. Nonetheless, last month was the second worst month in terms of this year's volume. Anyhow, I took the sergeant up on the deal he offered. After three months with the 101st in Dak To and Tuy Hoa, I was sent on a temporary duty assignment (TDY) near the DMZ to learn field station operations from the 8th Radio Research Unit at Trai Bac Station in Phu Bai. From there it was off to Pleiku where we worked first in support of the 25th Infantry Division and later the newly arrived 4th Infantry Division.

What the hell? Why would these people, this underclass, this despised minority, feel a kinship with a singer that represents the right wing status quo? Shouldn't these guys be listening to Steppenwolf (or at least Eminem)? Lets face it, the main stream of America doesn't hang out in places like this. In fact, most suburban middle class goons would prefer that these people simply vanish from the planet. So why would the customers at Twisted Sisters get behind this new super nationalism? This was like seeing Jewish kids singing Deutschland Uber Alles, for god's sake. http://www.free-press-release.com/news-the-woodshed-gallery-auctions-classic-antique-automobile-truck-motorcycle-advertisements-1441204799.html&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s Hannah's was just a hole-in-the-wall, long and narrow with a bar running almost the whole length of the building. The brick on the face of the building, and the white wooden door outside, were nearly black from years of soot from the coke plant and steel mills. Patrons tended to be older folks who spent what was left of their paychecks on booze, Polish sausages, hard-boiled eggs, and illegal tip boards. Li-Li led me into a corridor leading to an office in the back of the building. There she introduced me to Mr. Nguyen van Duong who wasted no time in getting to his questions. Duong was an ugly man, small and fat at the same time. His hair was thin for a guy in his 40s, and he used a pomade to plaster it to this head. The skin on his face had an oily sheen to it. His lips were fat and reminded me of raw liver. I had just started on another beer when someone dropped a few coins in the juke box. The music was bad country. To my utter disgust the first song that played was that "I want to stick a boot up your butt" super-patriotic, ultra-jingoist thing by the guy in the buy truck engines online commercials. The people around me began to sing along loudly. To digress a bit, I need to tell you that Sgt. Grace lied. First, the language I was assigned to study was Vietnamese. Second, after going through the 101st Airborne Division's jungle combat school in Phan Rang, I was assigned to the 1st Brigade, a reactionary unit. I joined them in Dak To, and early the next morning was flown out to join an artillery battery in what was called "Operation Eagle Bait". Didn't take long to find out we were the bait, and Charlie was the eagle. The objective was to tempt the Viet Cong into attacking us, then bring in an assault wave of Huey's loaded with infantry, and wipe the enemy out. What I quickly discovered is that there is nothing in the world comparable to the first night you are brought out of a deep sleep by M-60 machine gun fire. The end of the story is we were able to get the lawyer for Ford Motor Credit to accept a much lesser amount because he was trying to get a default judgment on his fees. That was illegal here in Florida, so with his hands in the cookie jar, he just wanted to get it over rather than have his name placed in front of the Florida Bar Assn. A little later I waved my hand around in front of my face to clear some of the smoke and give myself a line of sight. I drained my beer and told Murphy that I had to bail. He slapped me on the back and headed toward the old scarred pool table. As I walked out into the sunlight I was thinking that I'd never have to see the inside of that place again.