First, I do not know who you really are. Only you and God do. Does that matter ? To me it does. In combat, which is only a small part of an infantry soldier's career, be it 2 or 20 years, you will be forced to do things that will replay through your mind over-and-over until you go to the next world. You will attempt to explain the what, when, where, and how to many others through your life. You will be frustrated, hurt, haunted, taunted, depressed, and perhaps suicidal. Seek out those who fought with you. They are your Brothers. They are the ONLY ones in this world that will ever know what fear and loathing, what places in the abyss you have been to, and what joy you have experienced. Joy ?, you might ask. Our lives are but short journeys. You indicate you are a medic. I trust that is true also. There are several medics on here who can lay it all out to you...To close for now .....
Watch the movie "We Were Soldiers Once", and read the book if possible. It is the only fully credible Vietnam War movie ever made. It was directed by an Army Ranger. When you are asked to legally murder and / or die for your country, the only ones you can trust are those who are locked-and-loaded
beside you. The merits of the coming War on Valentines' Day totally bore me now. Not acting and turning loose homicidal-heads-of-state like Saddam or Kim Il Sung is a no-brainer. It cannot be done. May God Richly Bless you and your family !! Feel free to PM me if you like.
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Larry Nuckolls
Bartlett, TN.
United States of America
Co C. 3/22 25th Infantry Division
Co. B 2/22(M) 25th Infantry Division
SP/4
11C20 81MM Indirect fire crewman
US ARMY June 1969 - May 1971
Draftee
November 1969 - November 1970 South Vietnam and Cambodia
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Dearest Mother,
So thick is the smoke in this cellar that I can hardly see by a candle 12 inches away. And so thick are the inmates that I can hardly write for pokes, nudges, and jolts. On my left, the company commander snores on a bench. It is a great life. I am more oblivious than the less, dear mother, of the ghastly glimmering of the guns outside and the hollow crashing of the shells.
I hope you are as warm as I am, soothed in your room as I am here. I am certain you could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surround us here. There is no danger down here - or if any, it will be well over before you read these line..."
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My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.*
* The quote is from the famous ode by Horace claiming, "Sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country."
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Wilfred Owen
(1893-1918)
poet, patriot, soldier, pacifist
( all of the above can be found at :
http://www.rjgeib.com/heroes/owen/owen.html )
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