A LESSON FROM A VET

  While serving in the army in germany I had purchased a
great book called " DEAR AMERICA  LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM.
 I was reading it on 24hr duty one day and a master seargent
saw me reading it and "requested it" after I was done. I gave
him the book and a few days later he saw me in the enlisted 
club and brought over two beers and sat with me, for a pfc
with no time in country or grade, i felt like a town selectman
who got invited to the white house.  The rest of my buddies
beat feet out of there under his stern gaze which left me and
the sarge alone. He asked me if I noticed anything strange
about the book. I replied no. He opened it to a page that
had been folded over and asked me what i saw. I dont know
if I was paying attention to the pictures the first time I
read the book but low and behold it was the same man i sat
at the table with.  I couldnt get over how young he looked,
no lines on his face and his eyes didnt seem as hard but no
mistaking it, it was him. The man who shared the picture with
him was killed shortly after. For the next few hours he sat
talking more to himself than to me about Vietnam and the guy
in the picture with him. At one point he took out a pen and
drew on a napkin a map of vietnam and all the places he had
"humped". He told me that I could think whatever the hell I
wanted about the goverment but always honor your country and
fellow soldiers because thousands of them had given their 
lives not for glory or honor but for each other.  He made
me send the book home after autographing his picture and
promising not to mention it again. He was a tough old bastard
that had momentarily looked into his own youthful face in a 
book and decided to talk about it one last time. Ill never
forget him as long as i live.