Too good not to share

Below is an excerpt from "Home Country", by Ernie Pyle. Pyle was a newspaper columnist who became famous for his man-in-the-trenches reports from the front-lines in World War II, from which he compiled and published three books. He was killed in the Pacific by a sniper. After the war was over, the best of his columns from the 1930's were compiled into a new book. The stories run the emotional gamut, but none so far have been as funny as this one:

( cut for length )