‘failures’.
“ That mental load is affecting your health and vitality. We aren’t here to change what happened.
“ I’m asking you to face the past, examine it and admit your part in it. I challenge you to take another look.”
“I’ll try, Bob. But why didn’t you confront me with this sooner. Like when you pulled me out of that replay of your body being hauled into the helicopter?”
It was Zachri who responded:
“You needed to hear what Bob just said about why we are here. While your attention was engaged elsewhere, he and I adjusted the coordinates of our journey to expand your awareness of what happened.
“ This is not only about what happened to you.
“ Seeing the bigger picture will help to put your own experience in the context of war’s dark side. What we are about to observe is so evil it has to have originated outside the human mind.”
***
The three walked unseen through the heat of a war zone. The whole world seemed to be caving in, as rocks and dirt sprayed into the atmosphere and marked out the boundaries of this sector. Pink-tinted light flashing; gray-tipped yellow clouds billowing and deafening noise made for a fireworks display more awesome and terrible than any 4th of July celebration.
Streaks of light racing skyward illuminated an overwhelming, awe-inspiring vision of hell. Dirt exploding all around them left holes deep enough to collect stacks of falling bodies and jettisoned parts. As bombs displaced entire hills and pulverized the vegetation, the scattering soil came to rest over some of the bodies, mercifully hiding them from comrades but not from the eyes of the all-seeing trio.
A strange force clutched at his heart, threatening to drown Mark in waves of rage and compassion. The strength of those conflicting feelings quickly became intolerable. Mark felt himself recoiling, mentally and emotionally. He knew the signs. Turning to his companions, Mark noticed that, like him, both men were automatically making the sign of a cross across their chests —a s do many people, regardless of their current spiritual beliefs, at the sight of death and destruction.
The emotions passed but the war scene remained. Mark understood the modus operandi of the key player, Napalm-B. He had attended a briefing with a physician friend in the Navy Medical Service Corps on how that weapon affects its victims.
The trainer had described how the bomb explodes into a stringy, sticky mixture which adheres easily to skin, killing by both immolation and asphyxiation.
A victim of slight splashing with the substance receives second degree burns, suffering severe pain and hideous scarring as a result.
In a victim doused with the liquid there is less agony but a rapid loss of blood pressure and unconsciousness; death occurs within minutes.
Mark, unable to contain his anguish, cried out.
“How could we unleash this weapon on other human beings? The ranks of the U.S. Military are not filled with monsters!”
“You and I were not engaged in this battle, but our unit was,” Bob said.
“It was in May of 1969 when 446 Americans died in the A Shau valley. The military never disclosed the number of Vietnamese casualties.
“ You weren’t told much about this incident because you were waging a life-and-death battle with your own wounds at the time.”
“I remember reading something in the hospital, but I was told it was merely propaganda; lies circulated by the North Vietnamese Army.” Mark recalled.
“Tell me; what really took place in that valley?”
Bob looked over at Zachri and he nodded.
“Just after our guys took this hill, they were ordered to abandon it, leaving the blood-soaked location site to revert to the control of the NVA, as we used to call the Vietnam People’s Army. Magazine photos of the young U.S. soldiers whose lives were lost in that engagement enraged the youth of America.”
Mark remembered his own
“ That mental load is affecting your health and vitality. We aren’t here to change what happened.
“ I’m asking you to face the past, examine it and admit your part in it. I challenge you to take another look.”
“I’ll try, Bob. But why didn’t you confront me with this sooner. Like when you pulled me out of that replay of your body being hauled into the helicopter?”
It was Zachri who responded:
“You needed to hear what Bob just said about why we are here. While your attention was engaged elsewhere, he and I adjusted the coordinates of our journey to expand your awareness of what happened.
“ This is not only about what happened to you.
“ Seeing the bigger picture will help to put your own experience in the context of war’s dark side. What we are about to observe is so evil it has to have originated outside the human mind.”
***
The three walked unseen through the heat of a war zone. The whole world seemed to be caving in, as rocks and dirt sprayed into the atmosphere and marked out the boundaries of this sector. Pink-tinted light flashing; gray-tipped yellow clouds billowing and deafening noise made for a fireworks display more awesome and terrible than any 4th of July celebration.
Streaks of light racing skyward illuminated an overwhelming, awe-inspiring vision of hell. Dirt exploding all around them left holes deep enough to collect stacks of falling bodies and jettisoned parts. As bombs displaced entire hills and pulverized the vegetation, the scattering soil came to rest over some of the bodies, mercifully hiding them from comrades but not from the eyes of the all-seeing trio.
A strange force clutched at his heart, threatening to drown Mark in waves of rage and compassion. The strength of those conflicting feelings quickly became intolerable. Mark felt himself recoiling, mentally and emotionally. He knew the signs. Turning to his companions, Mark noticed that, like him, both men were automatically making the sign of a cross across their chests —a s do many people, regardless of their current spiritual beliefs, at the sight of death and destruction.
The emotions passed but the war scene remained. Mark understood the modus operandi of the key player, Napalm-B. He had attended a briefing with a physician friend in the Navy Medical Service Corps on how that weapon affects its victims.
The trainer had described how the bomb explodes into a stringy, sticky mixture which adheres easily to skin, killing by both immolation and asphyxiation.
A victim of slight splashing with the substance receives second degree burns, suffering severe pain and hideous scarring as a result.
In a victim doused with the liquid there is less agony but a rapid loss of blood pressure and unconsciousness; death occurs within minutes.
Mark, unable to contain his anguish, cried out.
“How could we unleash this weapon on other human beings? The ranks of the U.S. Military are not filled with monsters!”
“You and I were not engaged in this battle, but our unit was,” Bob said.
“It was in May of 1969 when 446 Americans died in the A Shau valley. The military never disclosed the number of Vietnamese casualties.
“ You weren’t told much about this incident because you were waging a life-and-death battle with your own wounds at the time.”
“I remember reading something in the hospital, but I was told it was merely propaganda; lies circulated by the North Vietnamese Army.” Mark recalled.
“Tell me; what really took place in that valley?”
Bob looked over at Zachri and he nodded.
“Just after our guys took this hill, they were ordered to abandon it, leaving the blood-soaked location site to revert to the control of the NVA, as we used to call the Vietnam People’s Army. Magazine photos of the young U.S. soldiers whose lives were lost in that engagement enraged the youth of America.”
Mark remembered his own
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