In Reply to "D.I. Motivation and Inspiration"

The night before graduation, we were getting ready, spit shining shoes, cleaning M-14’s, getting the last of the speeches from our senior Drill Instructor. He looked at all of us with a look we had never seen on his face before. “You’re all going to Vietnam. Do you think you’re tough after what we put you through here? You’ll know how tough you are if and when you hear these five words-“Gentleman, prepare to defend yourselves”. When it actually happened to me,my blood ran cold. Tell that to some 21 year old kid today-they don’t have a fucking clue! I can’t believe that in 3 months it will be 50 years ago-half a century!