Cosmic Reminder

Funny how the past never gets left to far behind. It reminds me there are forces at work a single individual will never comprehend. There seems to be a bond between people, objects, time and space. Is it the intensity of a situation or just plain coincidence that draws things together? Could it be a reminder that some things, events or people should not be forgotten? What we learned in that past experience should be brought forward and made public, not just documented, archived and left for a chance discovery in millenniums gone by.
It took me 35 years to write my book on the Vietnam War. Not because I was ashamed, frighten or mentally unstable. The time was just not right for me.
When I returned home after my second tour, I was constantly asked the same two questions, “Did I kill anyone?” and, “Did any of your friends get killed?” For the curious, the answer is, “Yes”. Back in the late 60’s, those questions were ignored. Why should I give someone a cheap thrill when friends of mine paid the tab?
This weekend, I was a guest speaker at a helicopter airshow. I had finished a video a few weeks ago showing a helicopter assault set to rock and roll music.
I wanted the audience to feel the excitement and sounds the two seem to have in common. The end of the clip is a solemn, almost religious finish that brought some of the audience to tears as it slowly shows the number of American casualties helicopter crews suffered in that 10 year war. War is not sane, glorious or forgiving. Hero’s are not made, they are lost.
I had a table set up outside on the airfield by the Vietnam Huey helicopter display so I could discuss my book and answer questions I was not able to due to my 30 minute window as a speaker. I was talking to the owner of the beutifully restorded ship and he asked me what group I had flown with in the war. I told him our call sign was “Little Bear”. He then informed me this helicopter was an x Little Bear aircraft! The markings had been changed to represent the unit he flown with in Vietnam. With only 25 helicopters in my unit and the fact I had been on over 250 missions, the chances were pretty good I had taken this ship into combat.
A cosmic reminder for me to keep speaking about the war so the men who perished in these machines should not be forgotten.

NOTE: A little over 7000 Huey helicopters participated in the Vietnam
War. Over 3000 were lost.