Thank you SO MUCH Sandy. My head knows this, but my heart just screams.

This has been something that has worried me from the day he was born. There were a lot of babies born that day - all boys. I watched and laughed at a local news clip about it, then someone told me it was because there would be a war when these boys come of age that would make Viet Nam look like a cake-walk. That thought terrified me because Viet Nam absolutely consumed me as a kid.

I didn't believe her and blew it off, but it always stayed in the back of my mind. I figured I could raise my son in a way that would not take him on that path.

Over the years my husband would occasionally suggest the military as an option for our son after high school, for discipline reasons. You should have seen the fights we had over this. I agreed to a point, but his experience in Germany was during peacetime - his life was never really in danger, and he didn't have to kill anyone. My husband could not guarantee me that war would not break out, so we fought and I held my ground. I never saw the need to inflict the military on my son in order for him to grow up to be a man. My son never held any interest in causing harm, inflicting pain, or killing anyone - why should he learn these skills in order to be a man?

I finally gave in to the idea that I may have to sacrifice my only child to a horrific war. I found it a little ironic that the war in Iraq was declared three days after my son's 19th birthday - the average age of soldiers in Viet Nam.

Was that lady right back in '84? Oh well, I tried - and it's not up to me. I can only hope and pray he comes back to me safe and whole.

Thanks for listening.

Daisymay, I didn't mean to hijack your thread.