Number 456
Horrors of war
The scariest part of this horror story isn't the ending, it's the beginning. For me, that is. Cowardly Ronald Hamly gets drafted. Getting drafted scared me 42 years ago when the same thing happened to me. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, as the old saying goes, it was the way of life of a college student who didn't think getting kicked out of college would earn him a uniform. It wasn't the first, nor the last time, I would be very, very wrong.
Obviously I lived through my Army experience, but poor Ronald didn't. You'll see how he met his fate in this tale from Eerie Publications' Terror Tales #7 (actually #1) from 1969.
As much as I love EC's, THIS company's stuff sometimes genuinely disturbed me and gave me nightmares!!
ReplyDeleteI was too young for the conscription that Roosevelt began and Ford ended, and too old for the registration that Carter began and every b_st_rd since him has continued. Now I'm well past an age at which anyone has ever been drafted in this country.
ReplyDeleteI despise conscription both as lousy morality and as wretchedly bad economic policy. And since I was never under threat of being drafted, opponents were never much able to label me as a coward.
Smith and Broxson report that this story is a reprint from Haunted Thrills #7 (Ajax, Mar 1953).
ReplyDeleteThere was no thrill like that of the draft board haunting you.
ReplyDeleteSome people just weren't meant to be soldiers, and your Pappy was one. I muddled through. I learned my right foot from my left, kept my rifle clean, saluted when I saw an officer...and beat it the hell out the door when my hitch was up.
"Sure, I can sell you some pills that will greatly lessen the beating of your heart so that even a doctor would think you were dead. But WHY?"
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line of the story. Gosh, the things they used to stock at the ol' mom and pop drugstores!
I like the added detail here that he's a horror movie star, and thus a master of makeup. His plan isn't well thought out, though--even if he *hadn't* been buried alive, what would he have done once he woke up?
Great story, Pappy. Glad you made it through without having to go to this guy's extremes. :)