Is 61 th new 39? Some Personal Observations

Just about this time 39 years ago in place called Go Noi Island, Vietnam, I walked up out of a bomb crater and then flew the rest of the way. It seems as unreal today as it did that day, July 3, 1969. What in today's wars are called improvised explosive devices we then called booby traps. My battalion had been slowed by a lot of them, but the word came down the line we were to keep moving the sweep despite those aggravating body mines. The guy walking in front of me died in that explosion. One corpsman near me was bleeding from shrapnel, my radio guy was hit but apparently only a minor wound. One of the guys on the mortar team also took some metal.

I was looking down on the scene wondering who it was that was down and as I looked, I heard some moaning. Suddenly, I was not longer looking down on the scene. I was in the scene. The moans were coming out of me. So I shut up. That was not way for a platoon commander to sound. The look on the corpsman's face as he looked at where the blood was coming from hinted at a real bad story as he slapped a pressure bandage on the groin and like all good corpsmen (navy-enlisted medics) assured me that it was okay and it was a good thing he was there to save my jewels.

Who knows what that day was supposed to bring. One of my Marines was gone. He was the second that day. We weren't sure where I was but we regrouped set up a quick perimeter, SSGT who again became the platoon commander, called in a medivac (I love combat helicopter pilots) and we divvied up the ammunition and I was heading to a field hospital.

So, a fraction of inch in so many directions BUT the bad stuff did turned out not that bad. I was looking down, probably with PFC Nunez by my side, but was able to go back - he wasn't. Since that time I sort of celebrate two birthdays -- January 1 (when it began) and July 3, when it restarted. That makes me 39.

What is my takeaway from July 3, 1969? When life ends, it ends, not leaving you much choice. But your mission remains -- to live that life until it is not your's to live any more.