Vietnam or Jail

Hello everyone!  Praise the Lord!

I was sitting with an elderly man while he quietly rested in his bed.  I was there because his nurse shared with me that when he wakes up alone, he becomes frightened, as a result of his medication he was receiving to deal with his medical condition. 

            While I was there by the bedside, just being there for the patient, his wife walks in quickly.  She had come in a huff because she had left her phone in the room last night.  She was with her husband until three in the morning!  She was so tired when she left for the night, she had forgotten her phone in the room.  That’s a big deal for almost everyone these days!

            I had seen the phone on the bedside table when I had come in be with her husband.  When she came in, she explained very quickly if her phone was in the room.  I smiled at her and pointed to the table, her phone clearly laying on it. 

            She was openly relieved!  This elderly lady has had a lot going on lately, none of it good, and replacing her phone was the last time that she needed.  After I introduced myself as a hospice volunteer, she thanked me for being there and keeping her phone safe!  I told her that it was my pleasure.

            She sat down and insisted that I stay.  I readily agreed, since it appeared that she needed someone to talk to.  My discernment was correct.  I soon found out that this lady was dealing with a lot of stress and grief over her husband’s condition!

            After consoling her for a while, she told me that she worked for a local Christian High School raising money for remodeling.  She had already raised thirty-million dollars of a goal of raising eighty-million dollars for the school remodel.  I was immediately impressed with her position and success in her carrier.

            She then confided in me that a lot of her wealthy donors were also donors to our hospice, which is a non-profit hospice.  We both went to Catholic schools and we swapped stories about the nuns who ran them!  We also went through flight training to become pilots.  So, we had a lot of stories about flying.  We had a lot in common and were enjoying ourselves.

            Then we started to talk about her loving husband.  She told me that he had received a draft notice to go into the U.S. Army.  Well, he didn’t want to go to war!  So, he refused to report to the Army!  The Vietnam war was going on and folks were getting killed there.

            Not showing up when drafted is against the law, so the police came around and picked him up and transported him to jail.  The judge now told him that he had to do two tours in Vietnam instead of just one, or he had to spend that amount or longer in prison!  He chose the Army over jail!

            The Army trained him to be part of a special security unit that would be behind enemy lines and to rescue American servicemen who were in trouble.  They operated in small units and would spend weeks to months behind enemy lines.  She told me that he spent many days and nights surrounded by enemy soldiers! 

            It was such a dangerous duty, and being so close to the enemy, they most of the time dared not sleep!  If you fell asleep so close to the enemy you may not wake up!  When his unit would finally return to their base, they would be totally exhausted!

            One day after a long deployment behind enemy lines, he fell asleep outside.  He went to sleep along the road on the American Military Base at Da Nang.  He went to sleep there because he felt safe hearing the noise of fellow American troops.  If he went to bed in a quiet barracks and heard a sudden noise, he would freak out, thinking it would be the enemy!

            One day a Colonel had seen him there along the road asleep and had him arrested!  When a General, who had known who he was and where he had come out of, very quickly gave the Colonel a “dressing down!”  She told me that that General told her husband that he could sleep anywhere he wanted!  The General understood!

            I told her that her husband was a very brave man!  I told her that my own father was stationed at Da Nang.  He was a medic, and the two men might have crossed paths there in Vietnam!  And now here we are, talking about both of them!

            Her husband returned from Vietnam; his duty done!  He worked professionally as a bass player.  He played with Mickey Gilley and other famous singers and bands.  Thousands of people would see him up on the stage in the background and no one would know him, or what he had been through for two years!  As he played for others entertainment, there was two years of hell in his mind that was kept secret!

Has anyone else been in war?  Can you tell me about it in the comments section?

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Brother Roop