[pct-l] Fwd: Fwd: Just Kids...."Taking Chance"....(an old Marine's reflections)

[Steve]

Has anyone heard or seen Steve sparky Macmillan his last post was from sissors crossing 2 weeks ago.

------Original Message------
From: Reinhold Metzger <reinholdmetzger at cox.net>
To: "PCT" <pct-l at backcountry.net>,"Hiker97 at aol.com" <Hiker97 at aol.com>,"Jerry Goller" <geartester at comcast.net>,"Ground Pounder" <groundpounderbill22 at verizon.net>,"CHUCK CHELIN" <steeleye at wildblue.net>,"Melanie Clarke" <melaniekclarke at gmail.com>,"Donna "L-Rod" Saufley" <dsaufley at sprynet.com>
Date: Monday, May 28, 2012 2:27:57 PM GMT-0700
Subject: [pct-l] Fwd: Fwd: Just Kids...."Taking Chance"....(an old Marine's reflections)

To my hiking buddies who served and those who know the pain
----------------------------------------------
Original Message:
To my Marine buddies,.......those who served and those who know the "PAIN".

I don't know what it is about Memorial Day that makes me feel this way 
and makes
me, once again, want to say the things I am about to say...........

/We were  "just kids",  in the summer of 1965, when we landed in Vietnam.
//"Just kids", most of us 18-19-20 years old, just barely out of 
High//School, not yet
old enough to drink but old enough to die for our //country.
/
/We never could quite understand that....if you are old enough to die 
//for your country
you should be old enough to drink
. /
/With one year of advanced infantry training including jungle, desert, 
//cold weather,
hand to hand combat and raider training we were "Gung Ho" //Marines, 
tough enough
to chew nails.....I mean we were Captain //Tolleson's Echo 2/7, the 
cream of the crop
of the Marine Corps' //Raider Battalion and ready to kick ass.
//
We were "just kids" eager to be Marines, eager to serve during a time 
//of war, eager
to be heroes
//
That naive fantasy thinking can change mighty quick when the landing 
//crafts hit the
beach and bullets start flying.

//There is no glory in war, only misery......it is your worst nightmare.
//
Our first casualty was by friendly fire....the tragic part was that 
//the bullet that caused
our first casualty was fired by the casualties //best friend.
//In combat, reflex decisions have to be made in a split second and 
//sometimes those
decisions turn out not to be the right ones.

//In my mind there is no greater honor than serving your country during 
//a time of war
and no greater sacrifice than a soldier paying the //ultimate price 
while serving his
country during a time of war.

//Take Pat Tillman for instance....Pat was a professional football 
//player who had fortune
and fame yet walked away from a 3.6 million //dollar contract to serve 
his country and
paid the ultimate //price....ironically, also by friendly fire.

//But it does not matter, friendly fire, enemy fire, the results are 
//always the same and
Memorial Day is to honor all of our fallen heroes,//for they served 
their country and
paid the ultimate price. //
If it were not for men like that, Obama might be our Prime Minister or 
//our national
language might be German and Memorial Day is to remind us //of that and 
pay our
respect to these fallen heroes who sacrificed //their lives so that we 
can enjoy what
we have today.

//We did not consider ourselves to be "just kids", but now that I am 
older //and wiser I
realize, we WERE "just kids".

//Nothing has really changed and many of our troops serving in Iraq and 
//Afghanistan
are still "just kids"....not yet old enough to drink, //but old enough 
to die for their country
/
/Think about that for a moment, on Memorial Day, and what that day 
//stands for. /

/Reinhold Metzger
//Sgt. USMC 1964-68
//Gunner, Echo Co., 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines





/
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