It Will Be Fun They Said

Come sign up, they said. It will be fun. It is wonderful. You will love it. Two recruiters to my ego fed Ideas of how great I would be, a perfect fit. It was the Gulf War, nothing big. Nothing to worry about. They laughed when I told them My mother was in a serious pout. In and out, they told me. Naturally we will take care of you, and you will be fine. They said how smart I was, and gave me a candy bar. I was comfortable, and signed on the dotted line. You might get to fly a plane they told me. You will be revered, given a hero’s welcome home. I was astounded and astonished, Could not wait to start, felt great in their imaginary dome. We were all excited on the plane over. Some of us had never been on a plane before, me, anyway. I will never forget my first week in the desert, Breathing dust, and being out of my league, so far away. Some of the guys and gals were excited, at first. I was one of them, ready to do whatever I could. After a week or two of losing friends and seatmates, I was ready to go home; lots of others too would. But we had enlisted, signed up for four years. Worse yet, they could call us back for ten years after that. I remembered my phone call to my uncle. He had been to Viet Nam, and his ideas were pretty phat. Keep your head down, do your job, and don’t rile anyone. He told me, friendly fire is a real thing, and feelings get pretty high. Stay away from confrontations as much as possible, For many of us here do not want you to die. The things we see in war as veterans are for our lives alone. We do not share them with anyone, except each other. So do not expect to hear the gory details which we all reserve For our comrade, our bunkmate, and our veteran brother.