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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s hard to see 110 degrees and the smothering humidity added by an afternoon rain. You don\u2019t see walks through jungle vegetation so tall the sky was lost above, and so was their location. You don\u2019t hear the chopper above or the splash of water against the Larc boat coming ashore with supplies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrew Lane and his wife, Inez, were still newlyweds when it came; his bus ticket, he calls it. They were married a little more than a year when Andrew and other men with their tickets boarded a bus in Shelbyville, bound for Ft. McClellan in 1966. In 1967, he arrived in Vietnam as a member of the U.S. Army\u2019s 625th outfit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t wanna know about it. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t say anything unless someone asks first,\u201d he said. \u201cSo many people will never know what we went through. They don\u2019t know how to talk to you, so I don\u2019t say anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he talks about those that know, those that experienced it with him. The names come up many times, as do their young faces in the photographs \u2013 James Donald Hester, Curtis Posey, and the others from Shelbyville that served together. We talk about terrain, supply boats, heat, sand, and little things that made their day seem a little normal while they lived in a foreign country and followed orders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you want to know about Vietnam, I\u2019m aware of what happened. I\u2019ve already been through the experience firsthand. That\u2019s one thing we learned, firsthand experience, not hearsay. People over here don\u2019t understand it. It\u2019s not good talk. It\u2019s real. I\u2019m not bragging. Everything I\u2019ve been telling you is history,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew and his comrades didn\u2019t come home to parades and well wishes. But he\u2019s thankful he came home. \u201cSome didn\u2019t,\u201d he said, \u201cbut thank the good Lord I came back in one piece.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He went home to his bride and back to the life that was paused, for the time he was a world away. They had two children, Melanie and Drew. Andrew had worked at, and retired from Eaton. Work, church, family \u2013 a quiet life with little talk of the time he was away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And over the years his quiet life grew more and more quiet, thanks to the time he served his country. Today, he can\u2019t hear at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evidence of Andrew\u2019s ongoing commitment to his country, waves from his front porch. Old Glory and a Vietnam veteran\u2019s flag remind him of his time there. And he knows at all times, the freedoms we enjoy are not without work and sacrifice. \u201cSomeone\u2019s gotta pay for it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve become almost numb to \u201cfreedom\u2019s never free,\u201d a flat cliche unless you or a loved one have stood in defense of our country in times of war and peace. You might say it falls on deaf ears, but not Andrew\u2019s. He knows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The living room wall stands in salute to his service. His dog tag, medals, draft notice, discharge papers, and uniformed portrait all remind him of another time. They too, are quiet and full of untold stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll show you what was with me the whole time,\u201d he said, reaching for an old, worn King James Bible, then a second one that was a birthday gift from his sister in 1967 during his time of service. \u201cI still read it every day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Holding out a vintage Kodak pocket camera, Andrew said, \u201cThis went with me everywhere too. It just fit in my ammo pocket, and I carried it everywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The piles of square photos prove it. They tell a story we didn\u2019t want to hear. They are benign snapshots, color and black and white, of a place we didn\u2019t want to be. But he went when called upon by his country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought of all the questions I\u2019ve never asked, of things I\u2019ve taken for granted, and of freedoms I\u2019ve enjoyed without considering the costs and sacrifices that secure them. I thought of the countless veterans I\u2019ve walked past, from Vietnam and all wars, without knowing of their service. I couldn\u2019t hide the tears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I scribbled on the whiteboard, what I can never say loud enough. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry. Thank you for your service.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did my job. I did my job,\u201d Andrew said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE CARPENTER bees buzz a few feet from our heads. A truck with modified mufflers drowns out conversation. Birdsong fills the trees. The front door opens and smacks shut. The porch swing squeaks back and forth, back and forth. And the dry erase marker squeaks across the whiteboard as we talk about it. He answers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover","category-shelbyville"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC_4552-1024x683.jpg\")
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