Tour of Duty

"So this is it?" Benny said to an empty table. "I don't think any of you would have thought I'd be here today would you? Ha!" Benny laughed to himself while holding a shot glass filled with some unidentified amber liquid and toasted other glasses sitting around the table in front of empty chairs. "Huff, Charlotte, Mickey, Shevels, Clover and Six, this night's for you," Benny said as he raised the glass high and brought it to his lips and slowly drained it, closing his eyes as he sipped the liquor, relishing the sensation as it flowed down his throat.
Benny slid his chair back away from the table and slowly stood, gripping the table fiercely with one hand and holding on to a highly polished black cane just as firmly with the other one. He walked around the table counter-clockwise, and coming to the next empty chair gently set himself down. He was already exhausted and he hadn't really began to commiserate his comrades yet. Benny didn't really know how his weakened body would hold up through even this little journey around the table, but he was determined to see it through to the end. He took a few deep breaths and cleared his throat before he spoke.
"Six, you were the first of us not to make it back to our little reunion. I guess when the rest of us would reminisce, sharing stories of the glory days and all the good times we had living them that it was easy for us to forget that you never really had many other days than the good old ones. What, did you make it back here four or five times after the war? It's a shame; you were a good man, the better than many of the rest of us and I've often felt it should have been me who was the first to go and you who were the last, not the other way around.
You were what, twenty-two when you enlisted? It still strikes me strangely, enlisting. The rest of us were drafted, conscripted to fight in a war that nobody wanted to fight in, the risk of becoming a casualty were so high. I have to admit that when I first heard that you had volunteered, I thought you were mad, just some violence junkie commando wannabe trying to score his adrenaline fix, but once I got to know you, you didn't fit that bill at all. I guess it reflects very poorly on me that it took so long for me to realize that you had a good reason for enlisting. You understood duty and honor and you were just the type of person who could put the cause ahead of your own desires. Like I said Six, you were my better, and when I say you earned my respect it isn't just a platitude, you did just that, you earned it.
I remember a time, fighting side by side and we were pinned down with hardly any support. I wanted to run, but we had been ordered to hold. The enemy was piling up all around us and we were in a good position to hold, but I was something of a coward and scared out of my wits. I don't know how you did it, how you managed to talk me down and at the same time keep laying down fire. The fighting that day was the fiercest and most savage I've ever seen, and you managed to keep a level head the whole time. You definitely saved my life that day and a lot of other lives too, and that wasn't the only time you did that either."

Oh, and BTW, Merry Christmas!