I remember talking to this old man when I was a kid, and I
could never understand what he meant when he said he visited the
other side of hell! He'd often just sit on the curb and cry for no reason.
I'd ask him why, but he'd just look at me and shake his head
and say "I hope you never have to find out"!
Well I'm the old guy now and I sometime find myself crying
and not being able to tell others why. I just pray that others won't
experience the pain for themselves! You see, I've walked a mile in
the old man's shoes and feel the pain he carried with him all those
years.
When I was twenty-one years old, I joined the Army; and
after a lot of training, I went to a place called Vietnam and saw the
other side of Hell! But I was blessed and saw it from a distance
most of my tour. I went on a few convoys, and flew on a Chinook
helicopter on several supply runs. But most of the time, I stayed at
the base camp in Ban Me Thuot, or at our headquarters in Cam
Rhan Bay.
But my most horrible experience of all was when I would go
to the medic stations or the hospital at Cam Rhan. For days I couldn't
sleep thinking about what I saw and the Vets that I visited; knowing
that many of them would not make it home, while others wished
they had died on the field. But even worse than that was the look in
the eyes of the nurses who had not only seen the other side of hell,
but also lived it everyday.
I'm in prison now, and have been here for over thirty-two years and
still see the faces of the nurses and the soldiers I visited at the hospitals.
I have one dream that keeps coming back to me, and I
don't fully understand its meaning. But in the dream I find myself
laying on a dirt floor in the dark. I roll over, and there lying next to
me is a body bag. As I reach to open it, my hand starts to shake, and
I break out in a sweat, and before I can open the bag, I wake up.
The psychologist tells me that I know what I will find when I open the
body bag, When I heard about Iraq, the dreams came back along
with others. A hundred years from now, the dreams will be there if I
am alive. If not, my veteran brothers and sisters will be having their
own dreams. You see, Iraq is on the other side of hell, aknow he’s
the reason you can feel safe while you sleep at night.nd the fires
burn brightly! So, if you see some old man sitting on the curb
crying and you don't know why, just say a little prayer for him, and
know he is the reason you can feel safe when you sleep at night.
