The real test of values, is holding on to them when doing so endangers your job, your well-being, and your life. With that said, the soldiers that pulled the triggers have some responsibility.

My Lai was stopped by a 24-year-old pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Junior. It would have taken only one noncommissioned officer to stop what happened. There are alot of very quality NCO's out there who by example have represented our country in the highest possible sense. Having a professional corp of NCO's has probably kept us out of trouble for this long. I wonder where this units leadership was while the murders of civilians was occuring.

It is painful to write this. It does not take alot of imagination to put oneself in the boots of those young men. It is painful to consider what they have given up. That they should give this country years of their youth, place themselves in constant danger, to the point the stresses finally cause them to slid into an insanity of sorts. The pain from the fires that burn in their hearts from the loss of friends so young.


Innocence carries no burdens, but the knowledge of evil taught over the scent of burnt powder carries with it a weight that we should never place on the shoulders of our bravest youth except as our last resort. And although I feel we cannot lay those soldiers blameless, neither can responsibility be shrugged off by those who have placed them in that hell that makes no angels.

And as long as we leave our troops there, I am afraid there will be more if this to come.


VHawk.