One morning during my third tour in Vietnam, a young Seabee came to me (I was his Company Commander)and told me he had just gotten a letter from home and he was the father of a new son. He asked me if I could put him in a less-exposed place because he really wanted to see his son. I did, but he was killed the next day. I went on to serve a fourth tour as an Advisor to the South Vietnamese Forces, after all US combat troops had left. But after the war, when it was obvious that we were in a place we didn't belong, I made a promise that I would never stand back if I saw US troops involved in another pointless war, making more fatherless (and now motherless) children.
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