LAS VEGAS - Shortly after his eighty ninth birthday, this reporter was granted a rare interview with Richard Bryan, a former public servant who was so self-centered that he wrote a book about working for a variety of jobs in local, state, and federal jobs.
“Now that I am in the twilight of my days and firmly ensconced in several taxpayer supported pensions, I think that it’s time to straighten the record, or make the record straight,”. Bryan said. “I struggled through four years at a state run school, and against all odds I was selected to be a member of the Army ROTC. I was just a skinny young man who, with undeserved good luck and the woke Reserve Forces Act of 1955 was not only granted the honor of being declared an officer and a gentleman by act of Congress, but was paid to travel to the nation’s heartland, Indianapolis!
After surviving a grueling officer basic course, I was given an opportunity that I had never thought possible. A brilliant Army officer, Lt. Colonel Fonk, took me under his wing. “Bryant” he said (he thought my last name had a ‘T”) “I am going to assure you a career as a government officer by having you trained as a postmaster. You will proudly wear the Army uniform as you learn the intracacies of mail sorting and the difference between regular and special issue stamps.”
I was elated! With my knowledge of the postal service, I knew that I could always get a job with a light blue uniform and serve my country. However, when I was summarily mustered out just six months later, I found that such jobs were scarce and I had not the political pull to land a position.
“Thus, like many of my fellow officers who were also floundering around, I went to law school where I learned seemingly useless terms like mens rea, livery of seizen, and guilty. That last word, guilty, turned out to be important, since Clark County needed some young attorney to deal with low life criminals so I got the job. That let to some other positions on the public tit, where I suckled until my retirement in a variety of positiions.”
“Holbrook, I have always admired you as a journalist, and that is why I have chosen you to tell my real story. Don’t fuck it up.”





