30 Quotes by Michael Zboray

The side of the base, that only hours before had been the site of a company of artillery pieces, is now gone. All of the men, the machines and even the very earth they stood on – are gone.

The war draws you into it and changes you forever. That’s what war does best.

The reason for the shaved heads and plain olive drab uniforms when you are recruited into the military is to immediately begin training “you”, the individual, to think as “us” the team.

Friendship here is like a flower that blooms in the desert; it blossoms from the harshest environment to add something special to the lives it touches.

After all, how many people can understand what it’s like to be a young male in the 60’s and being scared to death, without showing it? I taste it, I cry about it, but the only way I find to handle it-is to face it. FEAR!

When you have so much to live for, fear is more predominant than ever.

Something people don’t think much about when they write a soldier in a war zone is how much diversion can refresh the soul.

I want to forget this awful place. Yet, at the same time, I never want to forget the many lessons that enabled me to mature quickly from just a skinny kid with a scraggly mustache, into a young man working so hard to seem older than his few years, as he evolves into early manhood.

The talking works most of the time. Sometimes though, it isn’t enough. Then, many turn to drugs. It’s widespread in Vietnam. Pot is the drug of choice for most casual users. Only the hardcore users step up to the harder drugs like cocaine, opium or heroin.