Eh, so I posted a new page and thought it to be a post.

I remember being on a mission outside of the Chu Lai base. We were the security team for the Headquarters of the 57th Transportation Battalion. Our mission was to monitor and protect our region of the base.  Our squad of 11 went out to find boobie traps, tunnels and things of danger. In the boonies, there is nothing as noisy as a squad of  grunts making their way through the um..do do. Hecktor has his boom box playing the Youngbloods loud enough that we can all hear it. We are spread out and searching for things that we didn’t know what. The from what I renber was a loud sound, a flash of light and the ground shaking under me. I was frozen because I couldn’t see and hear. Then Benny pushed me to the ground and laid on my side and said “Jingles, don’t move, I got you”. Then an eternity later, the guys pulled me up and asked me how I was. I was rattled, I could see again afteer the flash of lite but I couldn’t hear to well. The medic bent down to Benny and said, “he’s gone”. I was still kinda in shock and didn’t realize what happened. As it turned out, Hecktor was to my right and he found the land mine near the tunnel. I pray he never knew what happened. Anyway, I lost my religion and found GOD for real at that moment.

They say it’s a Zen thing to be in the here and now, but so many here and now haunt me from my past.