I remember James Smith
\nAnd Eugene Sabo<\/p>\n
And Bobby Jenning
\nAnd A.J. McKenzie<\/p>\n
I can see their faces and hear their voices as if it\u00a0was yesterday.<\/p>\n
I remember them dying during that war so long ago.<\/p>\n
Terrible, bloody, painful deaths in the jungle and rice paddies.<\/p>\n
I remember escorting the\u00a0remains of one friend to his home town, knowing a sobbing mother waited.<\/p>\n
As I left the plane some lady called me a baby killer.<\/p>\n
There were no banners, parades or welcome home in those days.<\/p>\n
I remember being discharged with some papers and a handshake.
\nThe next morning I got up and went looking for a job\u00a0and get on with my life.<\/p>\n
I was different from the 17-year-old boy who joined the service four years earlier.<\/p>\n
Older, wiser, forever changed by what I saw.
\nYou just push it away from your mind and move on.<\/p>\n
It was years before I stopped jumping at a loud noise.<\/p>\n
I remember the time the replica of the Vietnam Memorial wall came to Hawaii.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want to, but I went late at night as a soft rain fell over the capitol building.<\/p>\n
It mixed with the tears running down my cheeks as I looked for the names of my friends.<\/p>\n
There were a lot of vets and families there that night and\u00a0we were all crying as\u00a0we remembered\u00a0our brothers in arms that lady hated so much.<\/p>\n
I stayed until dawn and erased years of sadness and hurt and left at peace with myself.
\nI rarely spoke of that part of my life afterwards.<\/p>\n
None of us wanted to be in that country, but we went because we were told it was important.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t make any difference how important it was or wasn’t.<\/p>\n
We were told it was and we believed it.<\/p>\n
Like me, things have changed much since then.<\/p>\n
Our government spies on us, the American spirit seems to have dimmed and we have disappointed ourselves and many in the world.<\/p>\n
But our military is still the best and brightest and true to its traditions.<\/p>\n
There are those who still believe what they do is important and some give their lives for it.<\/p>\n
They are my brothers and sisters in arms and I honor them.<\/p>\n