The Old Guard

THE OLD GUARD

We are veterans of the Vietnam War.

Time is counting the cadence now as the years march us into

history. The battlefields where we screamed and cried and bled

and died settle like falling leaves onto its pages.

We make our daily pilgrimage to the seductive siren on the rocks-

Our Lady of the Valley of the Shadow - Vietnam.

She has been our companion for so long now that it would be hard

to imagine life without her. Indeed, we would be like lost children.

She is the tapestry against which all things are compared. We

measure everything and everyone by the yardstick of our

experience with her.

Today she may return us to a mountain top overlooking a cloud

shrouded emerald green valley. Tomorrow may bring a visit to the

place with the dark, blood soaked sand and the bits of

sticky, drying flesh.

We have that secret place that we retreat to when the outside

world gets too close. Its where we go to deal with hurtful things.

It is the place where we keep the little locked box with the bad

things in it. There we are still soldiers...it is our bunker.

Jame Elton Bethea

SN: RA19820274

HHC, 2/503, 173rd Airborne

Bien Hoa, Vietnam 1965/1966

©2009 James E. Bethea