Trouble! Now that’s one commodity we never run short of in Vietnam.

Now, you’ve never seen a rat, until you’ve seen a Vietnamese rat. That’s unless you include some o the politicians who push to keep this war going at the same time they are helping their own sons escape the draft.

It’s the moment I’ve waited for, for an entire year. My feelings are welling up inside of me as I bounce up the stairs and into the plane. As I look back I see a solid line of green uniforms going from the gate to the plane. 400+ individuals with a single thought-HOME! I’m actually going back home.

Sorrow is also a terrible weapon of destruction, one that kills from the inside out.

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.

You don’t know LONELY till you’re in a war zone and cut off from everything and everyone you know and love.