by Rudy Rodriguez

Created on: June 10, 2008   Last Updated: June 11, 2008

It's funny how when you go to war you are commemorated and pronounced a hero if you make it back alive. They pin a purple heart on you and give you a pat on the back if you were wounded during war. It's all great and all, but what about the men who lost their lives, all the while leaving wives and children behind. Many of the very men who fought for us to be free and to keep us safe only live on in the memories of their families and friends. Even to this day I wake up in a cold sweat yelling and wiping the tears from my eyes from the nightmares of what happened on that hot summer night twenty-years ago next month.

I will never forget that day and I only can recall vivid memories from the most regretful day of my life. I can only cherish the memory of the 23rd airborne squad, but you guys still live on in my heart and memories as well as my stories

The wind from the choppers whirled and whipped I couldn't think clearly. My eyes were stained by the blood dripping from my forehead. An excruciating pain kept shooting up and down my arm. I could hear voices screaming and footsteps pounding against the earth.I managed to sit up and I was trying to make sense of what had happened, I could only manage to utter, "John,""Wilson," over and over again. My senses were coming back to me slowly and I began to make out the voices saying, "Captain," "captain we have to go now." That was the last thing I remembered before blacking out.

It was supposed to be a routine patrol day. In three months we were going to be out of that god forsaken jungle. My men looked up to me Im not sure if it was just because I was their captain, or if deep down they thought that my experience would keep them alive. We were walking through a village near the riverbank. The huts were made of bamboo and we saw some villagers cooking breakfast the children would smile and wave most days, but it was the elders who were wary of us.

We continued through the village and Jesse my sergeant who wished we could just bomb the whole country and be done with it said," I always get chills when we pass through this village." Wilson and Steve my gunmen agreed. I Said, "come on keep going we have to get to our next checkpoint and back before sunrise." I remember we had gotten to our last checkpoint and jimmy the youngest of my unit just 18 years young said," captain can we jus set up here for tonight we've had a long day and john doesn't look so hot." I looked back and I don't have many regrets that I made in my life but

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