And a lot of these guys grew up in the very villages we were patrolling and living in. Some of them had brothers in the PF's or South Vietnamese units. The Marines however, especially the Combined Action Marines, made the best of a bad situation. Sorry, I'm really running on. A few have used Vietnam as a kind of excuse, blaming their experiences in Nam for the misfortunes and bad luck they've had since.
Some guys come to grips with it early.
For others it takes much longer. I'm kind of a wise guy to begin with and pretty much wisecracked my way through the war. I was cracking jokes in the medevac chopper with my legs all bandaged up. It's not courage, it was just the way I deal with fear and stress. I feel it, then start cracking wise about it, to cover it up.