Vietnam Blast

My partner's father is a Vietnam veteran. He was sent around the age of 19 and flew schanooks over Vietnam, mostly being responsible for picking up bodies (from both sides). I have heard him describe how when they picked up casualities on the side of "the enemy" how they would dump them in mass graves that would be covered in one swoop by a bulldozer. It was a grim scene.

This weekend, my partner and his father Bougie went on a snow boarding trip to West Virginia, accompanied by an old Vietnam war buddy, Tim. As opposed to Bougie, who went the route of hippy after the war, his friend is the more prestigious war veteran, having gone on to many years of education and living the "stright and narrow." When my partner came home, he told me a story which touched me deeply, and saddened me about the situation that our own youth are facing within the supposed "war on terror" today.

He told me that the one night, (after a great day of snowboarding) Tim approached Bougie and told him that he wanted to thank him...

 Tim, while in Vietnam, was on a tank going down the road, and someone jumped out in front of the tank. Tim, being responsible for firing, blasted the person with machine gun bullets, and the person fell to the ground. Apparently, they later learned that the person was just a child. Tim was 23 at the time, and when he came home, he was wrecked with regret and his soul was sad for the life he had taken. He simply could not get over it. He consulted a priest, who told him to "pray for his sins" which made him angry. At this time in his life, he expressed his feelings to his war-time buddy, Bougie. Bougie turned to his friend as said, "Tim, what were we supposed to do? We were all children."

This day in West Virginia, in front of Bougie's son, Tim thanked him for those words so many years ago. He said that it was the only thing that put his mind at peace. It was the only thing that allowed him to stop reliving the horrible things that were forced upon him as a soldier. They were children.... 

We are children... we are just children...