Editor, Commonwealth:
In December 1970, I was stuck in Vietnam fighting for the United States against the Viet Cong.
We were out in the field, but our commanding offer had promised us a hot meal on Christmas Day. So we woke up about 3:30 a.m. and moved about two miles to a bivouac area so we could eat lunch.
It was raining so hard that you could not see the man three yards away. Have you ever tried to eat hot dogs and beans when it was raining and blowing around 25 miles per hour, with gusts up to 70 miles an hour? That meant our teepees were blown away and our food had water all in it. The cake they sent to us was pound cake in a can, and it was soaked with rainwater. It rains over there three months without stopping.
It was a miserable life and a hard task to win a war that nobody wanted us to win. The only thing we lived for was the day we would leave and come home.
I left Vietnam in February 1971 and came home to a country that did not appreciate my service or our sacrifices.
I registered two months after classes had started at Delta State University. They agreed to accept me late because of my service to our country.
I was not ready to settle into class work. I could not concentrate enough to stay in class. I went to class one time a week but no more. I was just not ready for being around all these people with whom I had nothing in common. It was just a terrible time in my life.
We lost this war, but I lost my innocence over there, with no support from the people who sent us to war.
I love my country. I wish its people loved me.
J. Otha Mitchell
Greenwood
