Back to blog
Brautigan
Share your work with family and friends!

I was first introduced to Richard Brautigan by a Marine Corps Lance Corporal. We were stationed in Scotland,
Edzell, Scotland.
He had been to Vietnam and I think if you survived that, they gave you easier duty, thus Scotland.
Actually he also did what I did in the Navy, electronic eavesdropping , mostly on the USSR.
I was listening to Russian submarines, I’m not sure what he was doing. It was of course “highly classified.”
I’m not sure how I got a security clearance…
Here’s my theory: They (The Office of Naval Intelligence) “ONI”
researched my past and saw some questionable issues, drug use, radical friends, etc.
So, they let me go through the schooling for a while and waited for me to “fuck up”.
I didn’t, so they gave me a “clearance”. It was really quite high, given that I knew the location of Russian submarines carrying many nuclear missiles.
Top Secret Codeword, Limited Distribution Codeword, U.S. , UK, Canada Eyes Only.
Wow, that,s a lot of bullshit.
Lance Corporal David Hanbrauer loaned me Richard Brautigan,s Trout Fishing in America.
It was a gift he gave to his wife, inscribed: To Katherine from The Sundance Kid.
Many of us at that time thought we were The Sundance Kid or Katherine Ross.
Later, when he found out his wife was having an affair with another marine, he grabbed his M-16 and threatened to kill others or himself. They talked him down.

Leave your comment...