Do we or society mold us?

Situations confronted us on the battlefields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that required instant action.

It was as if one of two fists demanded that I choose.

And yet my choice meant the difference between capture and escape or injury and death.

I discovered the only correct answer was the one that led to our survival.

And yet I blamed myself for getting us into difficult situations.

The thing was, everything went wrong regardless of my choices.

I surmised early on that we were no more than fodder for the civilians in Washington conducting the war, but it meant nothing.

My job was to obey my commanding officer’s requests and survive. So I did, as more than 58,000 of my brothers died.

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