All Comments on 'Home'

War does terrifying things to a person. You've described it well. Even though every combat vet has different experiences, there is always a common thread and you've included it. Your story hits close to home.

We have no idea what goes through the minds of our fighting men as they serve their tours of duty. One friend of mine, a combat veteran from Vietnam, once told me that he had to lock away in the back of his mind all memories of his family and friends while he was over there. For him, total concentration on his skills and his surroundings meant survival. When he returned, he did the same for his memories of combat, only allowing fragments to surface over the next 20 years.

I saw a bit of graffiti written in charcoal over the door to a bunker in Quang Tri Province...it read FREEDOM, FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FOUGHT FOR IT HAS A TASTE THE PROTECTED NEVER KNOW.....Very good story, but the way the american people treated the Viet Nam veterans...was the reason I made a decision to leave America. I know I was one of them.

Shortly after our Commanding Officer was killed, a fellow Marine said to me, "Captain Sweeney was like a father to me. Yet I feel nothing."

That's the emotional muting of war. A defense mechanism stuff your emotions now, sort them out later in safety.

I wish I could have told him the truth about feelings: "Don't worry Brother, you will. You will."

I got the feeling that there is a whole lot more to this story in the author's mind than just what he actually wrote.