Many politically correct folks will become infuriated with this post. It violates all of their rules.

We are curmudgeons, old men who will make fun of anything. If we are the target of some impolitically correct prank, joke, or supposed bullying, we will laugh right along with the others.

The reason is quite simple. It’s funny.

This story is a classic example, one of the best.

My great friend, Marty Linville, was a hero, as i have noted, for his service in Vietnam, which earned him the Army’s Silver Star. He suffered from that service with several conditions. The one that struck him earlier than the others was angiospapgelitus. This is a condition that grows bad bone on the spine. It fused most of Marty’s spine and created the inability to turn his neck and his head was thrust forward and down. It caused him a great deal of pain for almost thirty years. Yet, he remained a very good golfer up to the very end of his life. Marty was amazing.

Twenty-five years ago or more, Marty had been over-medicated by several of his specialists. Consequently, he could not hit a golf ball very far (he finally managed to get his specialists coordinated and the problem did not go away, but the treatment lessened his pain a bit and increased his flexibility somewhat for at least twenty years; he was still limited in distance on hitting shots, but it was tolerable). Before, he resolved that distance problem, he had a problem on one specific hole.

The 12th hole at Sea ‘n Air, the Naval Air Station, North Island’s golf course, is a 528-yard, par 5 hole. There is a water hazard about fifty yards in front of the green that requires a tee shot to clear about 150 yards without landing in the water. With Marty’s limitations at that time, he just couldn’t clear the hazard, but he tried, tried, and tried.

Then on one Friday round, we were playing with my old shipmate, Al Pavich, and my neighbor, Ralph LaVage. As we approached the tee box, Marty announced he was going to lay up short of the hazard so he could clear it on his second shot. We thought this was a good idea.

Marty pulled out his sand wedge, and hit. The ball was just a bit off-line to the right. It hit the cart path and bounced high and long. The excessive bounce took the ball an extra twenty yards or so and into the water with a big splash.

When Marty turned around with that look only Marty could give, Ralph was doubled over in laughter, Al and i were rolling on the ground laughing. Marty got that great grin of his and started laughing along with us.

As noted after the meds were corrected, his distance problem was somewhat resolved for a long time. The story became a must to tell to anyone who joined our golf game who had not heard the story. Marty was often the one that told it.

Yep, Marty was a legend. He, like the rest of us, just wasn’t politically correct.