Returns

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by Wayne Hastings

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I was trying to remember my first days home from Vietnam. Recall the first minutes well.

We landed in Alaska on return from Japan. If they thought you were to fucked up to make all the way home they sent you to Japan. If you died enroute they could save the coach price and ship you home cheaper as cargo.

Anyhow we landed in Alaska. For me that was the momment I had been waiting for for better than a year now. America !!

I guess I'm not the only one thinking along these lines cause a general excitment rolls through the plane even the really fucked up guys are feeling it. The walkin wounded shuffle down the ramp. Us on stretchers are rolled out on to the tarmack. Its like we are rolling out on to a new planet. Or an old long remembered planet maybe. nyhow its cool and twilight type of thing. The air tasted like pure oxygen cool and sweet. Kind of a reverse of the first breath of liquid shit we took in Tonsnute a year before. You remember that don't you Tommy. I recall vividly the purple mountains majesty I mean, I saw 'em. Somehow I kissed the ground. The next time I woke up at Ft. Devons in Mass. The last of the stitches are taken out. I call my brother in law up in NH. Hes been saving a sixer of Bud for over a year. We were drinkin it the night before I left. He said I'll save this til you get back. Now this don't sound like much of a task but you don't know Zeke he was a full blown alkaholic. But that didn't make him a bad guy. know there was some nights when he run out of beer that sixer look as good to him as it did to me 10000 miles away. He was mighty tempted. ut he never touched one of them Buds. I told him where I was said I'll meet you out on the highway in 4 hours. I went to see Lt. Lencioni he was in Green Berets right there in Devens.We talked a while about old times then I said I gotta go. I talked to some green remf about a pass I don't recall his rank everybodys pretty much equal in the field if you know what I mean. He said you gotta do 5 mns active duty then 2 yrs active reserve then 2 more in active. He said you got 30 days convelecent leave then report back to the A&D office in 30 days I said yeah right see ya. Hoofed it out to the highway Sittin on a guardrail who pullsup Brother in law Zeke we drank that six pack afore we was outta Mass.

Wayne Hastings
B/1/501
1969