Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 19, 2009

Trouble ahead.

Get off the chopper, Melissa. There will be another one coming along any time now.

Poor Melissa, from one forgettable experience to another!

Heh heh, Trudeau knows how to work it.

Question: Who DIDN’T see this one coming?

On the bloody morning after … one tin soldier rides away …

Hmmmm…maybe they’ll actually be good for each other. He starts caring for someone other than himself and turns his life and attitude around and she..uhh…she gets out of it…umm…help me out here guys,,,,

Fighting soldiers from the sky. Fearless men who jump and … oops. Never mind …

‘bout time. What’s it taken? A month for them to stop passing each other?

Ok Melissa, chew him up, spit him out. Use him, abuse him. Treat him like dirt. He’ll thank you for it. We’ll all fell better.

I haven’t been up on much about Melissa in this strip. Could someone bring me up to speed on her? I’ve only been reading story lines about her in being in therapy.

Did I predict this, or what?

More than one??? I thought it was just one! One is plenty! One is enough!

I missed that whole sequence, so I know very little about it - only when people make small comments about it, like now.

He thinks he may die on this errand, and she’s already experienced spirit-murder, been touched by a purple candy valentine heart, and signed on for the next room of the dream. Maybe she’ll find out what color his eyes are. Can’t choose who you love, ain’t?

I gotta bad feeling about this!!

Josh1360, RinaFarina, here’s the sitch in a nutshell. Melissa was an Army helicopter mechanic in Afghanistan whose First Seargent started coming on to her. When she rebuffed him, he threatened to assign her to sentry duty if she didn’t sleep with him. After she did, thinking “once and it’s over”, he continued to press her for sex. When she told him she’d report him, he counters by threatening to write her up. When she then goes to her C.O., the C.O. basically told her it was her word against the First Seargent’s, and that if she wanted an investigation, the colonel would have to pull her off the flight line for the duration.

She did get a bit(tiny bit) of vengance, however; the First Shirt walked into the hangar one day as she was beginning to clean her weapon and she aimed it right at him, giving him time to think about what she could do if she chose, then she lowered it and left the building.

You know what this need? Duke’s son to be somehow involved.

Last chance for romance, Lil’ Duke~

Oh, and get a shave too.

Umm JAD, Redfern is not pretending to be army. Most US personnel wear flak jackets and helmets when going through badlands.

choll… In the first panel, Jeff in unbuckling the chinstrap on his helmet.

I’m pretty sure BD got the word about Melissa’s difficulties, and (perhaps as a sign of his growth) seems to have ‘got it’. The little purple candy heart was a nice touch. She got dinged downrange.

And that bird is waiting for her, with her parts; on commercial airlines, late departures are often waiting for a box labeled ‘AOG’ (Aircraft On Ground), one that’s not in the air, making money!

;-) Oh yah, Doty? And what makes ya so sure? Y’know the one about the “milkman” dontcha? Or have I just been too inundated by implausible Jerry Bruckheimer-produced hairpin plot twists, largely concocted to give a withering storyline a much needed shot-in-the-arm? I will still anticipate that real cliffhanger of a final panel… “I am your father, Jeffrey” (and ‘Jaws’ was never my scene, either)

(‘sides, it’s kinda fun observing peoples’ feathers getting so ruffled protecting fictitious entities from defamation)

this will not end well

I still say this was just a fluke. They won’t even say a word to each otherm and then will go their separate ways forever.

Good post, Joe!