He came into our History class. Talked to us about the war. The whole reason we fought the war was to fight and ward off the Domino Effect, which was the communistic overtaking of eventually the World. But why Vietnam? “We wanted to stop the spread of communism to further countries”.

It was amazing listening of the danger he went through, and the scariest part was about how he saw bazooka shells flying out at him as he was filling up the helicopter with gas at the station (because North Vietnam and the Vietcong knew where the stations were).

He said his mental condition after the war was not examined by any professional psychologist like in World War 2 where they were interviewed on the way home on the boat. He said he had been fighting Thursday and in the very next few days he was home.

I asked “Do you think that it was right we went further north than the 38th parallel into the Northern Vietnam Territory?” He said: “I think we should have done anything to win the war.” There was so much these guys have faced, and I’m so glad he survived it, he’s an inspiration for all of us.

We thanked him so much for coming, it was very genial of him to come to each of our history classes and give up his lunch for a day just for us! I learned a good lesson out of all this, you have to respect all veterans with the same respect and even more the Vietnam Veterans because they were spat on when they came home days after leaving combat and going through the mental pain of their countdown card and facing the probability factors of survival.