This is a rewrite from the Virginia Pilot, December 7, 1982. This article was the beginning of a now 30-year off-and-on association with the Pilot and the nearest I've gotten to the intended newspaper career that I wanted and Hank needed in Hell on Earth, a love story.
Hope
For the Holidays
--a GI remembers a legend
In December 1970, I was nearing the end of
my first year in the army. It was a strange year. I held none of the
then-popular objections to serving in the army. Both my parents had served
their country during World War II and I was proud to be doing the same.
But there was one problem. I didn’t really
feel that I was walking the same path that they had. So many changes had taken
place, and the army had come under so much attack in recent years that it was
hard to believe that my army was my father’s army. His had had the support of
the entire nation. My army didn’t even have the support of its own members.
After one year I was still looking for the missing link.<
