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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
sombre, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores..."
I didn't put it there," He said.
~ Author Unknown ~
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