INTO THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND: A SOLDIER’S TRUTH ABOUT VIETNAM AND BEYOND

What else drove us into those killing fields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia? The Army’s code of military justice? Our oaths? Maybe. But still, the pay was low, the food was bad, and the quarters were worse. They made us suffer — thirst, hunger, exhaustion, fear. Combat, injury, death. It was what we did. But what for?

Maybe we fought because we loved our country. Maybe we believed in the cause. We thought we were stopping the spread of communism, a noble fight. Or maybe it was something else. Something simple. Something we couldn’t name. Whatever it was, we were in the Devil’s playground.

But here’s the thing — we would’ve followed the enemy straight into hell itself if it meant keeping our brothers safe. That was the only cause that mattered — survival. Never leaving anyone behind. That was how we measured ourselves.

We never saw what we became. The butterfly never sees its wings. Combat did that to you. You couldn’t think straight. All you could do was survive. And we did. We survived through gut feeling, through skill, through grit, and through a kind of hope we’d make it past the next fight. We dared death to come for us. And death came for many — more than 58,000 of us. The number is haunting.