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.

What could it be in this country that transforms young, vibrant, innocent guys like me into steely-eyed, sharp-tongued, single -minded killers with “the thousand yard stare?

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.

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.

There are hundreds – no thousands of guys waiting to get on that magic flight back to the world. I’m just a grain of sand in the desert of people with a single thought: home!