"In June of 1968, after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated. I was 21 years old. Young, yes, and politically naive, but even so, the American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong. Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons..."
This story is a frank account about the author's experiences in the war and his observations on how it shaped the rest of the men of Alpha Company. He survives the war and years later he goes back to revisit and pays honor to those in Alpha who didn't. "It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do."
Fortunately, I never fought in a war. My brothers and other loved ones haven't either. With that said, I want to thank those who have - the ones mandated by the government, and the ones who have out of a sense of duty. Thank you. It is because of you that I've lived a happy and fulfilling life and I hope that you do too. You, above anyone else, deserves it most of all. And for those who weren't as fortunate to make it back home, let us not forget them. Let's keep them alive by sharing their stories, their dreams and aspirations. Their quirks and vulnerabilities. Their smiles. Their joy for life. For as the author points out: "...in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world."
This story is a frank account about the author's experiences in the war and his observations on how it shaped the rest of the men of Alpha Company. He survives the war and years later he goes back to revisit and pays honor to those in Alpha who didn't. "It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do."
Fortunately, I never fought in a war. My brothers and other loved ones haven't either. With that said, I want to thank those who have - the ones mandated by the government, and the ones who have out of a sense of duty. Thank you. It is because of you that I've lived a happy and fulfilling life and I hope that you do too. You, above anyone else, deserves it most of all. And for those who weren't as fortunate to make it back home, let us not forget them. Let's keep them alive by sharing their stories, their dreams and aspirations. Their quirks and vulnerabilities. Their smiles. Their joy for life. For as the author points out: "...in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world."
