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27 Oct 2002
Tommy was assigned to the Scouts, A Company, 2/47th Infantry, in October 1968. He was a fine soldier and well liked. He also spoke of his wife. Tommy was from Tennessee and that's probably the reason we hit it off so well. My mom and grandparents were from there. I remember he used to always tease me about eating grits and biscuits. I was the medic assigned to his squad. He died several months after I went home.
He is one of the reasons I wrote this poem:
THE WAR AT HOME
What is happening to the real world?
Have they all gone nuts!
Protesting and carrying signs against something
They have no idea what's it all about
They are not the ones who should be
Believe it or not!
Why don't they keep the politics out
And let us fight to win.
What do you mean they killed Martin Luther King?
And Bobby Kennedy too!
Then Kent State and My Lai too
What is a good soldier to do?
How did they let the world go so wrong?
Now ... we got a WAR AT HOME!
Vietnam's a funny place
People here from every race.
Black and white and brown
Helping to defend the yellow race.
Fighting side by side
Just to stay alive.
If the people back in the WORLD
Could only just see
How we live and fight and die
United by circumstances beyond our control
We don't care about the color
Of the skin.
That doesn't count on what determines
A person's worth.
What would be the greatest tragedy of all
To go home at the end of my time.
Just to be killed on the streets
Of my hometown.
By a friend who was my brother
In another place and time.
Doc Pardue - Vietnam @ 1969 & 2001
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