Mr. Mayes volunteered for paratrooper training and joined the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg. It was there that the incident that reshaped his life took place, on July 30, 1955.

Mr. Mayes ran into a friend, Sgt. Henry C. Saunders, who told Mr. Mayes that he was heading to town from the base shortly, and invited him to come. Mr. Mayes said he would change clothes and join him.

Sergeant Saunders said he had a particular reason to go to town: He was carrying a gun, a personal weapon not issued by the Army, and he wanted to get rid of it.

The sergeant tucked the small pistol, a .22-caliber revolver, into the inside pocket of his sport coat and entered the base club for noncommissioned officers like himself — known as the N.C.O. Club — for a cheeseburger. He was sitting with other sergeants, including one who had been promoted that very day, Sgt. James W. Emery, 21.

Sergeant Emery was celebrating. (“You won’t deny that you had eight or 10 beers, do you?” he was asked later, to which he replied, “I may have had.”) It was 7:30 p.m.

Mr. Mayes entered the club and found Sergeant Saunders. Sergeant Emery noticed the private in a place where privates weren’t welcome, and, goaded by the older sergeants around him, rose to tell him as much.

The scuffle that followed would be hazily recalled later among its three or four principals, the details lost to the heat of the moment and to the beer. Sergeant Emery and Mr. Mayes exchanged words and began shoving one another. Sergeant Saunders and another sergeant broke them up, but the two resumed wresting.