<< It was just my job and I loved it. >>

That's what I said when they flashed from Joe to me ... "I loved doing what we did..." They didn't show the whole thing. The gist of it (the whole bit) was, we knew we were good at what we did, we knew we were saving lives, and we loved flying and could not wait to crank and fly every day. At least I couldn't, and I know that you (and Marty) and most all of us felt the same way.

But I also said that, when you make your decision to fly into that LZ, with the tracers bouncing and fires smoking ... and you know, looking at it, that if you go in there that there is no way you will come out ... and you make a conscious decision to do it anyway, there is no way you will ever again be the same man again, the same as the "normal" guy walking down the street next to you who never had to make that decision.

Heavy stuff.

Most people are fortunate in that they never have needed to decide to die. We who willingly made that decision and then somehow lived through it ... are few indeed and very different from our normal friends. And we are finding out, years later, that we are so much the same as each other, no matter where we are or what we do, and we are very, very different from the normal friends we love.

"A day came when I should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So I have stayed as I am, separated from the normal human condition." Guy Sajer, in THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, quoted by Larry Gwin, in his book BAPTISM.

Bob (Remembering certain "R/Fs" does this to me... sorry.)