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| hello again jackie......
please have patience with this note as my heart aches even just to think about it. your tribute......."a fathers love", is more to me than some words and a melody. you see on jan. 29 1968 in the early morning hours, 13 south korean tigers and two of us american radio operators were sitting on a little hill overlooking a valley in the central highlands of south vietnam. we had been there for about a week and a half prior to this day watching the n.v.a. and viet cong gather in a staging area down in the valley. we thought we were unseen for all this time. well.....on this morning i recieved a radio message saying that my son was born . i can't tell you how happy i was with this news. i tried to picture him in my mind. then reality hit me and it was back to our job. well......just before the early shades of night fell, we watched as the n.v.a. were departing the area in many different directions, one large group was headed our way. we found out shortly that they knew w e were there. we got hit pretty good that night. believe it or not all i could think of when the first shots of the battle were exchanged , was of my son and my wife. i felt guilty as all heck. i don't know why. i don't remember a whole lot about the battle but the next thing i do remember was getting off of the chopper back at base camp and everyone was looking at me funny. i looked down at myself and i saw i was covered in blood, yet i did'nt have a scratch on me. i think i was saved for my son, that is all i can think of. i was told by others that we fought like hell but yet , i can't remember. there were other fights we were in and i can't remember them either. when i came home i had to see some shrinks and they both told me that my brain won't allow me to remember . they said that this happens to some guy's in combat and everything would be ok. they said it's like a safety valve for your brain. well........anyway i read this verse"a fathers love" and it brought forth some emotions about what my son and i went through togather on that night, even though we were so far apart and he was safe at home with his mom. i do not want my son to ever have to look at those sights of war, or the smells, or the sounds or to experience of it all. i would gladly die for him and my daughter to never know this about war. i am sorry to ramble on so tonight jackie. i don't talk much about these things but that simple little verse of yours tells it all. thanks for listening. leroy i don't know if i told it right though. i meant to say how special my son is to me and i got off rambling on other things. my son and i are so close that we even know what each other is thinking most of the time. we have been through so much togather in our lives. i think that god gave gary, my son , to me on that specific day , for a reason. i stand in awe of gary, i stand in his shadow for he is so much a better man than i could ever hope to be. he makes me so proud. i do not want him to ever have to see the things which i have in my life. i love him dearly and only want the best for him. don't get me wrong jackie, i love my daughter to peices but there will always be a special place in my heart for gary. aw.......here i go rambling again. sorry. have a great evening jackie. leroy |
