All he had

The Tet offensive was over and done. We spent the whole time on the river. The N.V.A. tried but we won. Civilians payed for all they Would deliver. Our base was safe surrounded by water. Our air strikes kept them far away. The towns people suffered horrible slaughter. An orphanage stood just outside the town. The nuns heard the guns and fled with the kids. That did not stop them from burning it down. How could we help?Just being squids. We started a clean up with help from the town. From empty cargo crates and salvaged tin. We took off our shirts and helped to rebuild. It was'nt too fancy but the nuns rushed right in. They set up house keeping.Doing God's will. The kids gathered round us with happy grins. We gave them some cookies from our meal. One stood alone,away from his friends. I walked over to him.His pain I could feel. His face showed no joy.Nothing at all. In Vietnamese I tryed to make him understand. He will not talk said sister De Paul. He just stood there holding out his hand. I saw something small lieing there. A tiny plastic tiger colored light tan. A sister said he wants to give it to you. To take a childs toy would make him sad. She said to me softly with a voice so true. He wanted to thank me with all that he had.Some times even in war beautiful things happen. Written July 28th, 2001 © on Jul 28 2001 01:53 AM PST   0 • 10