[Eric in the Ozarks]

I was an Army Brat in Japan in the 1950s, early 60s. Dad was an employee of the US Army. He had served in the China-Burma-India Campaign as a hump pilot.

I grew up thinking the Army would be part of my future but the incredible waste of Viet Nam sickened me.

A KIA from our high school class of ‘65 came back and I went to his funeral in our little Iowa town. Someone said only part of him was recovered.

A farm kid from the same class was an APC driver in VN. He drove over a mine and the explosion came up through the floor. Among other less serious injuries, he lost one testicle. He was granted a 95 percent disability.
He returned home, married a girl from the class of ‘68 and had several children.

[Repeal The 17th]

It was definitely a strange time...
while you attended funerals for your upper classmen
at the same time watching some guys in suits in Washington
drawing ping pong balls from a gold fish bowl
to determine who was going to be next.

It all seems like surrealism, now