beneath the shadow of war

I was born thirteen years after World War II and five years after the Korean War, and three years after President Eisenhower sent first military advisors to South Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese Army.  I was a sophomore in high school when the Vietnam War ended.  The draft was over by then too.

Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I grew up playing with little green army men and G.I. Joes.  When I ventured outdoors ~ you'd find me somewhere with other neighborhood boys playing army.  My 'toys' included actual military surplus ~ helmets, web belting, back packs, etc.  One of my guns was an actual carbine stock with a cut off broomstick as a barrel ~ my sniper rifle.  I had a pile of gear and an arsenal of play guns. My older brother had some old military manuals that I would flip through to see if I could acquire an edge while playing an opponent. But I wasn't the only kid in my neighborhood who took his war games serious.

My favorite television shows were COMBAT! and TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH.  My favorite movies were primarily war movies. I can't count the amount of these movies I have watched and how many times I've re-watched them (over and over) over these past six decades.  I still enjoy the good ones whether they be 'History or Hollywood'.  My list of favorites would simply be too long and tedious to mention within this post.

I remember when I was in junior high school, the Vietnam war was still raging.  The news  of casualties daily being reported on our old Zenith. The draft was still in effect and my brother still carried his card in his pocket.  It was one of those days that was in the yard readying for a neighborhood mission, when he casually passed by me and remarked, "In a couple of years, you might be doing this for real."

Strange.  I grew up thinking that I might very well have to do it for real ~ that one day it might be required of me to serve.  That day never came, but I think every boy born in the shadow of those wars were raised with the idea of the possible inevitability of one day riding out on that bus.