Robert Peavey - Praying for Slack - A Marine Corps Tank Commander in Vietnam

After that first guy, everyone wanted a pillow or a blanket, just to watch the stews lean forward and reach up into the overhead bins, their skirts raising up a little. With every request, the whistling started anew.

I felt sorry for the girls, but they were very gracious about the whole thing. After all, their passengers had just been through hell. They even looked as if they enjoyed it just a bit.

AND SO ENDED MY THIRTEEN-MONTH TOUR. Waiting for me was my future bride and the chance to go to college. I was twenty-two, going on forty.

We were all returning heroes—or so we thought. We never imagined what awaited us when we landed in the States. I had no anger at the moment. That would come later, not to be overcome until I wrote this book.

I was alive. I sat next to the window and gazed out among the clouds, a million thoughts running through my mind. I pulled out a pack of Camels, flicked the wheel on my Zippo, and lifted the flame to my cigarette.

Engraved on my lighter were the words from that sign outside Con Thien:

For those who must fight for it, life has a certain flavor the protected will never know.

Yes it does, I thought.

Yes, it does.

First published in 2004 by Zenith Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, Galtier Plaza, Suite 200, 380 Jackson Street, St. Paul, MN 55101-3885 USA

© Robert E. Peavey, 2004

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ISBN 0-7603-2050-0

Edited by Eric Hammel

Cover design by Tom Heffron

Layout by Lynn Dragonette

Printed in the United States of America