THE THEATER OF WAR: LESSONS FROM VIETNAM

There was no sense in thinking about the next mission. The Army Intelligence reports didn’t matter. The future never unfolded as it was supposed to. The enemy was always somewhere else — hidden, elusive. Our job wasn’t to predict what would happen. It was to quell the fear, plan, and step into the war’s dark, miserable, and endless theater.

Were we successful?

Success became measured by how many of us made it out alive. We counted ourselves lucky if we returned without a wound that would change us forever. But the truth is, luck had little to do with it. More than 58,000 of my brothers and sisters died in that war. Another 150,000 came home broken in ways invisible to most.

I didn’t know it then, but the war had done something to me. It took away the part that could feel mercy and compassion. I began as an innocent recruit and came out of it as someone who could do whatever was asked of him — no questions asked. The duty came first.

My buddies and I never regretted it, though there were things we did that would never fit inside the lines of the law. We did what we had to do. We did what we needed to accomplish.

Knowing the outcome, we said yes when asked if we would repeat our tour. Because, in the end, our presence saved lives. It became the single truth the war gave me…