PACK YOUR BOYS OFF TO VIETNAM....

"COME ON MOTHERS THROUGHOUT THE LAND.

PACK YOUR BOYS OFF TO VIETNAM.

COME ON FATHERS, AND DON'T HESITATE

TO SEND YOUR SONS OFF BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

AND YOU CAN BE THE FIRST ONES ON YOUR BLOCK

TO HAVE YOUR BOY COME HOME IN A BOX"

vietnam song, country joe and the fish

My friend, Paul James, lived across the street from me.  He was a year behind me in school but that didn't matter since we lived so close to each other.  We played cowboys and indians, and war...built forts in the undeveloped parts of the neighborhood...spent hours playing sports, telling each other lies about what we were going to do with our lives, hung out with the other fellas in the neighborhood and lived the "leave it to beaver" life that was the norm in the 50's-60's....When we were in high school, we all rode the bus together until one of us was lucky enough to get a car.  Paul's sister, Judy, started to date one of the MacDowell twins that lived down the street.  We all spent a lot of time together in and out of school...elementary school, junior high school, and high school..

I went away to college, Paul worked and went to junior college. Life and distance got in the way of the way it was before we grew up.  I would see Paul when i came home from college and in the summers when i worked to make money for the next year's tuition.  

I knew that Paul ended up in the service and was in Vietnam towards the end of 1969.  In early 1970, when i was dealing with being number 9 in the draft lottery, Paul was killed in action.  He was a crew member on a helicopter gun ship and was shot down over Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam  

( This is the Province that is infamous for the My Lai massacre).  He died on March 7, 1970.

Twenty five or so years later, i found Paul on the Vietnam War Memorial wall in Washington.  I lost other friends in the war but none so close to me as Paul.