How Father's feel. When it came time for my son to be drafted I made a pact with my Mate in Australia to have my son go there. Since my mate and I both fought in Viet Nam it seemed the only practical thing to do. My Son's friends all joined up and thought the worse of him because he did not join or get called. Today he has two lovely daughters, is alive, and his friends all tell him how lucky he was to have a father that kept him safe.

I didn't have to send him to Australia but had a ticket in hand in case. He is an "Only Son" and I am fairly well disabled from my service. It kept him out of the fray.

It didn't change how terrified I felt sitting at the TV waiting for word on one of my friends son who was in the barracks in Beirut when it was bombed. Luckily he had just left minutes before the bombing in a transfer to sea duty. Still felt the terror for the days we didn't know.

I still can't look at my friend's Mom without crying - he joined the Marines because I did. And got his head shot off in an ambush. She made the military leave the casket open so the others could see what had happened to him. She is still angry and this happened in 1967.

Fathers feel - we are just trained to hide it better.

I set with one of my work mates this morning for 3 hours. She was having an anxiety attack about the destruction yesterday - she flashed back to when she was a crew chief and was pulling pins out of nuclear weapons - the weapons nearly went to Libya. Anyone remember that one? The folks in the UK were protesting the Americans retaliatory strikes at the time. She talked about driving down the road with protesters on one side lining the road - she went home for the rest of the day.

Am I rambling enough? I have seen the troops here at the base I work on gain resolve to do their job. Young men and women - Fathers and mothers also - leave their children to go do as their country asked. I pray for them all. Peace - Steve