Đà Nẵng, 1965: I was a K-9 sentry dog handler in the United States Air Force. The marines had recently arrived and were assigned perimeter duty around the base. Seeing your "first dead body" is something you don't easily forget. I remember a new guy marine in-country that came up to talk one night.

He seemed overly excited (anxious?) about what it would be like to see his first dead-body. I recall him commenting that he had only seen people dead at funerals back home, and he thought it would be "neat" to see a real dead body that's all messed-up. The irony is that he turned out to be his first-dead-body in a rocket attack one night.

It's surprising how a comment can cause a memory to pop-up suddenly. Telling this one reminds me of the 58,229 plus men, and eight women, listed on The Wall ... all lived, loved, and died once upon a time. The marine's name is there, somewhere---I wonder who he was?