[Andy]

Well that was beautiful. You may have gone just a tad over the line when you said we kept our sanity, speaking for myself of course, but it was beautiful. Matter of fact, it caused just a quick flash back.

For a moment, just a moment, I could smell a diesel engine and gun powder and fear. I could see way too many enemy troops who were getting closer, kind of fast. Their green tracers were bouncing off of our APC and there was that distinctive cracking noise as the bullets just missed. The sound of 82?s landing entirely too close mixed with primeval sounds coming from men half crazed or wounded. The increasable dryness in the mouth that couldn?t have been quenched with a case of beer. My head oscillating as was the barrel of the fifty. Squeezed those twin handles so tightly and pushing on the butterfly trigger so hard, the thought crossed my mind, ?I need to ease up, I might break this thing?.

It was 35 years ago we said good by to those fine young men? Youths who we never really had a chance to say good by to. Men who died and we still wonder, ?Why was it him and not me? Why in God?s name am I alive??

Feb. 5th , 67 I enlisted in the Army. On Feb. 2nd, 68 I was an acting platoon Sergeant who had been put in for a bronze. No bragging, I swear - just can?t imagine that that really happened. Did it happen or were we just kids having a communal nightmare? As the years go by it seems less real, it couldn?t have been real. The music, the girls we knew we?d love forever, ?Batman?, ?Combat?, ?Gilligan?s Island?, those were all real. But all those people trying to kill me? Did it all Really happen?

Stay healthy and be happy, you may not get another chance,
Andy