Sunday, December 13, 2009

Trust / Russian Roulette

Several days ago here in Omaha an Airforce Airman was died while playing a game of "Trust" where you show your trust by looking down the barrel of a gun held by another GI. I have not been able to get this out of my mind since I read about it.

When I returned from Vietnam I went to the Dundee Theatre here in Omaha to see "The Deer Hunter". In that movie Christopher Walken dies playing Russian Roulette. I was devastated by watching that movie and something about Russian Roulette was making me even crazier after seeing that movie. I went on a mission to go through my letters I sent home. It struck a nerve. I knew that I had experienced a wounded GI who played Russian Roulette in Vietnam or was my mind playing a horrible trick on me. Well, I found the letter I had written on 24th Evac Hospital Progress note paper stating the GI was dead in our ER. I remember getting him off the chopper and being in the ER at this time and the conversation of how he was killed by playing Russian Roulette. I remember the anger I felt at first wondering how he could have done this to himself, playng this terrible game, especially in a war zone. I thought of his family and how they would be told of his death and how it happened. Then comes the realization that a young man has died, one of my bothers who had a family who loved him and how much he will be missed. No, I have never knew him but I will always remember him. He and his family has always been in my prayers.

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