Kenneth Palmer

Wasted Blood Kenneth Palmer

There's an old joke-"What's the difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy-tale?" A Fairy-tale starts with-"Once upon a time" and ends with "They lived happily ever after". A Sea story starts with "This aint no shit". If you're listening to Sea Stories, well, you can never tell where they're going to end and they don't always end with "Living Happily Ever After". The story you are about to read sounds like a Sea Story with a back story that sounds like a Fairytale. Neither of those thoughts is true and veterans of any war would think this had to be planned by the "Big Boys" someplace. It wasn't!I was 21 and since high school I had been carrying around an old guitar that was my Dad's. He had bought a new one from my uncle. Both sides of my family are musicalWhen I came to Gulf Port, Mississippi from Boot Camp it came with me from home as carryon baggage, when I reported to the Construction Battalion Center awaiting the Battalion's return from Nam. When they came back, again, it came with me!I always liked to play, and with somebody always around, unless someone was sleeping; I'd play after work as I was waiting for one of my friends on our way to chow, I'd play a few notes or a song before heading out. I guess word got around because someone heard me, and told someone else. The rest just happened! Like a guitar player's dream, in the last place you'd expect a Rock, Country and Mo Town band in whose name alone stated how the people in our country felt at the time; to form and play and add a little more to rock n roll history in the War everyone at home was protesting. In some cases I only added a little to the story because my memory is foggy. But all events happened. I may have the sequence of the occurrences wrong, but they all happened. Other than the names of the guys in the band and our commanding officer, all names have been changed. The songs and partial lyrics were and are part of all of our lives living then, and since that time.