Last night after I dropped off my step son at his Dad's place, I stopped in a Big Lots store to pick up some pretzels for my buddy's Mom. I was doing a quick check of the video racks when I looked up to see an older man with a walker looking at me. I noticed he had a Navy Viet Nam vet hat on. There aren't many of us left these days so I asked him when he was there. He said the first time was in 1962.
At that my ears tuned in quickly. I asked him when he was there next and he recited a litany of times and places he was. Many of them were places only an operator would have been at that point in time. He asked me when I was there. I told him where, when and what. He got a startled look and while shaking put out his hand and said, "Thank you for saving my ass!" I looked at him, struggling to remember the face morphed back in time. I couldn't place him in my defective memory banks and told him so. He asked if I had ever left the river boats to go in and extract a team at this place and time. I said Yes we did.
His response was, "I was one of them!" This time he strongly shook my hand and again said, "Thank you for saving my ass!" I can't rightly say it was him, but he believes I was there at that time. If any of you are the one who really do the deed, I pass on the thanks he gave me. From one old Vet to another, "Thank you!"