His death was not by hostile fire, as his lifeless body lay in a far remote country called Vietnam. Maybe it would be recorded as an accident or by hostile fire. But this would not alter the fact or bring confort to the love ones left back home. As llife faded and the world that he once grew dark. He felf that somehow he found peace in this land so far away from home. It was like a new birth, for the first time in his life he felt no pain, no fear, and the earthly laws that bound us to our mortal existance seemed to no longer exist. He fetl free and towards the heavens a light shone down as it guide him as many lighthouses have guided ships to a safe passage. His curosity was over whelmed and he floated toward the light as a moth to a candle.

He heard the men under his charge calling his name, at first it went unnotice, but they were persistent until it could no longer be ignored. His trip toward the light came to a halt as he turned toward the voices. The morning started out normal, hot, humid and looking forward to a trip to the mess hall for something they callled food. It would be a few hours before it was time to be deployed, It gave us time to clean weapons and stock up on supplies the plan out the nighttime operation. If there was any time left, write a letter home and tell them how safe and sound you were. These letters were mostly lies; you always felt that maybe the next time in the field, death would have you on his list to be claimed. The lies in the letters, maybe the love one's back home would believe but more than likely they knew you were hiding the truth. It was the time of the month when the squad was deployed to perform a joing operation with the navy. As the day grew into darkness, our trip down the Mekong River began. When th radar on the swift boat found a promising location we would be drop off to set up an ambush. A man on the bow used a starlight scope to try and avoid being ambushed,

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