I will never forget that Friday, near Bien Hoa, in the Republic of Viet Nam. It was so hot, about 90 degrees, with humidity that soaked you to the bone.
It was a Friday morning, and my buddy SP4 Dave Cassidy was called to duty for a routine trip outside the wire. He was a 19 year old frontline slackman with the Big Red One, and had joined the US Army so that he could go to college. He had more courage than a 19 year old should have. His girlfriend, JoAnne, was waiting for him at home. Dave was a short timer, and was waiting for his fly away day. He had been in Vietnam about 10 months. Soon he would be home.
It was about 10 klicks north from Bien Hoa, near the rubber plantation when it happened - a single mortar round, a cheap $3 Chinese mortar, struck the tour. No doubt that shell was carried all the way from Ha Noi. It did its dirty deed, the job it was manufactured to do that day - you see, Dave was killed instantly.
November 22 comes but once each year. And each year I think about Dave, and how much fun we all had together. I think about how stupid WAR is, and what a disaster that war was.
November 22 leaves me speechless. Dave is dead, he died for nothing, and now we, as a nation, are killing more Daves every day. Over 2,900 Daves are dead in Iraq. For what?
I get so angry when I think about all the Daves that our nation is creating. What were they thinking, those who never sacrificed anything, as they sacrifice our young men in Iraq? I want them to stop - stop the killing.
In Viet Nam today, you will see military cemeteries with an obelisk in nearly every village. They all have the same inscription: "To Qu^oc Ghi' O'n" - The country will never forget its heroes. I will never forget Dave, he was my hero and my good buddy.
I wrote this because I am getting to be an old man now. I want the young ones to know that it's OK to hate war - and the warmongers who take our youth and throw them away for reasons that are never fully revealed.
The Daily Kos is all about politics - and war is the failure of politics. How do we, as a nation, stop them from taking our Daves away from us?
You can find Dave's name now, on the Viet Nam Wall - Panel 38W, Row 33. "Anh yeu em, mot anh hai" (I love you, my number one brother).