Nam Vets
When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, he was into His 6th day of
overtime when an angel appeared.
"You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling
around on this one."
And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Nam vet has to be
able to run 5 miles through the bush with a full pack on, endure with barely
any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and
keep his weapons clean and operable. He has to be able to sit in his hole
all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in
unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow keep his senses
alert for danger. He has to be in top physical condition, existing on c-rats
and very little rest. And he has to have 6 pairs of hands."
The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands ... no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems ... it's the 3 pair of
eyes a Nam vet has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant grass, another pair
here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in front that
can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make
it ... ", when he knows he won't.
"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can carry a
wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a firefight, calm the fears of the latest
FNG, and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck."
The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?"
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, recite all his
general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than
it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the
War, and still keep his sense of humor."
"This Nam vet also has a phenomenal personal control. He can deal with
ambushes from hell, comfort a fallen soldier's family, and then read in his
hometown paper how Nam vets are baby killers, psychos, addicts, killers of
innocent civilians."
The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being
vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very
ones he fought for."
Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and said,
"There's a leak ... I told you that you were trying to put too much into this
model."
"That's not a leak," said the Lord. "That's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die,
for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag, for the
terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone with it's demons,
with no one to care or help."
"You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear.
The Lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores
..." I didn't put it there," He said.
Cause for reflection ... God bless Nam vets.
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