Not _the_ John Campbell

Department of odd coincidences . . . on the news last night there was an interview with a General John Campbell, who's in charge of the army forces in Afghanistan.  Common enough name, which of course has considerable science-fictional resonance.

A military resonance, too, for me.  The guy looked about my age, a little younger – and in fact I knew a John Campbell in the army.  I met him in Vietnam; we were in the same platoon, in a fire base together for a month or so.  He was an NCO, and not a draftee, which was a little odd at that time and place.  A little younger than me.

John W. Campbell was the most important science fiction editor at the time, and I had met him a short time before being drafted, and I remember telling Sgt. Campbell about the coincidence.  He had read a little science fiction, and was interested.

Well, I checked the general's military history, and unfortunately he's too young for us to have crossed paths out there in the jungle.  It's kind of nonplussing to see an old guy in a position of huge authority and find out he's fourteen years your junior.

That makes me a, an . . . what's the term . . . an old person?  Dog my cats.  By cracky.  Too old to be a whippersnapper.

(Incidentally, I looked up "by cracky" and found a really unlikely explanation having to do with pubic hair.  It's just a euphemism for "by Christ.")

Joe