beds . I never got his name but I could see the lit cigarette and the bottle of Jack Daniels on the nightstand .
Even after being told to shut up and don ’ t talk to him , I was intrigued as to what his story was as he was much older than me .
After a shower and some time we began to talk . Mainly about where we were from and where we had been . He started to open up to me , I think because he had a few drinks in him . He told me he was drafted back in the 60 ’ s . He had flunked out of college so they brought him in and trained him to be an air traffic controller . Then they sent him to the conflict . He rattled off a few bases he was at but I was young and didn ’ t realize the relevance but the rest of his story was surreal . He said they were shelled every day and every night . They didn ’ t work in the control tower as it was a primary target . Instead , they had sandbagged bunkers between the runway and taxiway which were moved every other day so the enemy couldn ’ t “ zero ” in on them . The enemy would shell these places all the time as well as the runway , where each of them were repaired 24 hours a day . He told me of the many buddies he lost in those mortar attacks but that he was always lucky .
The thing he said scared him the most wasn ’ t the mortars , but the pilots that called in needing to land while they were in the sky circling the runway . They were easy targets for the Vietnamese and many were shot down right there after many of these pilots were coming back on missions that they thought were more dangerous . They would tell the air traffic controller that their plane was on fire or they were on one engine or were out of fuel and the air traffic controller had to decide who was telling the truth and who wasn ’ t but just wanting to land , terrified of being shot down . That ’ s what he said was the hardest part of his job and what affected him the most . There were decisions he had to make . Tough decisions and some were wrong and people died .
We talked for hours that night . The next day ( early ), I was assigned a barracks and I never saw him again but I still think of him often and wished I had thanked him for what he did , which I didn ’ t .
On this Veterans day , I ask that we all thank those that sacrificed for us and our country . And not just the ones you see on that day but call those that you know and thank them as well . Please pay special attention to our Vietnam vets as they were the ones that saw so much and were appreciated the least .
14 SOUTHERN HOLIDAY LIFE 2020