[Too Many Projects]

I didn't get to go to Vietnam either, Lynn. Drafted in the '71 lottery, I failed the induction physical and was declared medically unfit from a total high frequency hearing loss from near fatal infantile pneumonia. One of my fathers many gifts in my life. My best friend since 6th grade, Mike, and a mutual friend, Greg, enlisted on the buddy system, as their numbers had been drawn low enough to be drafted too. They went thru basic and then were sent to helicopter repair/maintenance training. Once sent to SV, they were split up, for some reason. Greg stayed on the south end near Saigon and no danger, but Mike was near the DMZ for his tour. At one point near the middle of his tour he sent me a letter that he had been approached to be trained as a nose gunner on a Cobra, as they were short on personnel for that position. He never mentioned anything about a rooster, but after he looked into it and was told the same thing, the average life span of the nose gunner, under actual combat, was about 10 seconds, as that was were the first VC sniper and machine gun rounds were aimed, he declined. He did get to witness many of the severely wounded being brought back to the hospital at that base and only told me about some of that a couple times. Until I heard his stories, I felt like I had missed out on something but after that, I was glad I did.
Knowing Rocky was in a similar situation in the middle East is very meaningful that he made it back safely.