For some of us, there's no escape from the Vietnam War

[kurtzapril4]

56. Thanks for your service, Pinboy3niner, and the rest of you.

My best friend's brother was killed in Vietnam in 1968, she was very close to her big brother, and I was close to both of them, so when he was killed it was like a death in my family. He, too, got the double sealed coffin.

My cousin Jim was also in Vietnam, and he came home alive...but not well. He started drinking a lot and got very mean and racist, which was something he never was before he went to Vietnam. He also had throat cancer, which he fought off. I think it was from all the herbicides he was exposed to in the jungle. He married a nurse who also served in Vietnam, she committed suicide, I believe right in front of him, and after that he slowly continued to drink himself to death. After he lost his license for a DUI, he would drive to the bar on a riding mower. He died in 1990. I really do think Vietnam killed him.

He was such a nice person, an excellent horse trainer, a guitar player and a gentle man.

Hate is a wasteful emotion. It usually eats the hater up inside, so I don't like to say I hate people, but fuck it...I wouldn't piss on Ted Nugent if he was on fire.