Veteran's Day: A New Vietnam Roadmap

--Remembrance Day 
Brian Adcock (The Prague Post)

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head? 
--One, U2

Being-true (truth) of the assertion must be understood
 as Being-uncovering (Entdeckend-sein)
--Martin Heidegger

Holding back the years
Thinking of the fear I've had for so long
When somebody hears
Listen to the fear that's gone 
--Holding Back the Years,
 Simply Red 

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose 
--Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, 
Gladly Beyond,
e.e. cummings
_______________________

A river or a stream is no longer a place to fill a canteen, nor is it a danger area.

A river line is no longer a unit boundary.

A road is no longer an avenue of approach, nor is it a "main supply route" (MSR).

A ditch is no longer cover, and a shrub is not concealment.

A dip in thr ground is no longer "dead space".

A hill is no longer "key terrain", or an objective to be secured, nor is a tree line.

A wooded area is no longer an "objective rally point" (ORP).

An open field is no longer a "landing zone" (LZ).

0600 is no longer "H-Hour", and morning light is not "stand to".

A clicking sound is no longer a spoon activating a grenade.

A "click" is no longer an endless ordeal or agony.

Night time is no longer ruled by an enemy.

A rifle is no longer an appendage to your body.

Tracers, trip flares, Willy Pete and star clusters are not the only colorful things in your life.

A road junction is no longer a registration point.

A poncho hootch is no longer home, and a rucksack does not permanently attach to your back.

Your eyes no longer see in degrees and mils and thunder no longer sounds like danger.

Mail call is no longer a time of loneliness and sadness.

A helmet is no longer a pillow.


--jim hruska 2014, veterans day