Alwaysawarrior

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I NEVER ENLISTED FOR LIFE!

Once when I was so very young and so strong
I had gone overseas to help defend others
Back then I had fought against the Viet-Cong
In that deadly jungle land with my brothers

I had signed up to serve for six long years
Four on active duty and two in the reserves
I would experience much and have many fears
Yet I was young, and I was so proud to serve

All of my own training was certainly intense
Two years condensed into less than a year
Then I was sent off to South Vietnam's defense
My mother had cried and said be careful dear

It was deadly that year we were under attack
And that one tour of duty would haunt us all
No one had ever said wait until you get back
When your nightmares from Vietnam would call

We felt indestructible under wars sharp knife
We were brave, we were strong, yet we were kids
I had only signed up for six years not for life
We had fought and carried out our leaders' bids

It's been forty-nine years yet I'm still serving
Every time I try to sleep those nightmares return
I ask God to give me the peace I'm so deserving
But peace is elusive so when will it be my turn?

© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.

It's been forty-nine years since I had served in the Vietnam
War and even though my enlistment was officially over after I
had completed my six-year term (four years of active duty and
two years in the ready reserves) each night and each day still
I continue to serve our nation. You see just because your own
enlistment had ended with an Honorable Discharge from service
to our nation at the completion of your six-year term of duty
those wounds suffered to your body last for life. Everyone is
affected from having served in a war whether it was from the
physical wounds suffered in battles fought or from the mental
wounds suffered to one's mind which plays back the battles we
fought every night in the form of horrific nightmares we all
endure as the years pass by us. The lack of sleep suffered by
many of us has lasting effects on your mind and body as well.
I was never wounded in battles fought except for a few bruises
and cuts here and there during my own year in the war and when
you had seen others badly wounded or killed in those battles
you'd never dream of asking about a Purple Heart Medal for any
of your minor wounds that had bled after seeing those who were
terribly wounded. But there were other wounds that many of us
would have to face years later as a result of our own heavy
exposure to the chemical defoliants that had been sprayed all
over and around our bases during the war which would cause us
many medical issues for the rest of our own lives and it would
kill more warriors than those who died fighting during that
war in Southeast Asia from Cancers of various types and many
other issues that many have died from. Then there are those
never-ending nightmares that we all have suffered since that
never let us have or enjoy a good night's sleep ever since we
had come back home from the war and even though my enlistment
had ended so many decades ago, I'm still serving each and every
night and also each day ever since returning back to my family
and my own home after leaving Vietnam for good.

I still often remind myself that I NEVER ENLISTERD FOR LIFE.

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I NEVER ENLISTED FOR LIFE!