Catspaw, I did indeed miss where you were coming from, and I am very grateful that you corrected my view. I am thankful to you for sharing your experience, and I would love to know more about it and how it shaped the person that you are now. My guess is that you spent many hours before and since that time weighing your decision and trying to come to grips with it. And though we took different paths, I believe the similarities would be striking. I salute your courage in facing up to what you believed in,acting on it, even though it meant that there was a very large price to pay. I don't often talk of those times, and all that I went through in trying to deal with it. I suspect that you don't either, so I appreciate your sharing with us. Experiences like yours and mine are two sides of the same coin for our generation.

Katlaughing, Thanks for your story, as it points out a very important reality. There are a lot of casualty's of war, whose name will never show up on a memorial anywhere, like your Uncle. One of my closest friends in this world had a brother-in-law who was so emotionally traumatized by his experiences in and after 'Nam that he finally died of a complete loss of desire to live. He wrote a rambling poem about it before he died. The form and style he used is not good, but one can hear the pain very clearly. My friend gave it to me and for 7 or 8 years I have been trying to put it to music. It is painful to read, but one day I will find a way to get this done.

Once again, thanks to all for your postings and your understanding.

Mick