USA heartbeat and operation the eagle’s wings honoring those who honorably serve and leaving no one behind.

We recently in Chattanooga ran into a Vietnam era veteran who shared with us some poems that he has written to help him get through the PTSD and the trauma of having fought in the Vietnam War.

Now, it’s unusual for a veteran of especially a Vietnam era veteran to share this kind of personal information with us and allow us to share it openly on the internet.

And so we very much appreciate him doing this. Now we’re keeping his identity secret for now.

Because we don’t want any repercussions against the man. But it gives us who have never been in combat, and especially those of us who did not serve in Vietnam, some idea about what it was like, and what it’s like now, I’m going to share with you another one of his poems.

It’s called Born of two countries.

Thoughts of beautiful sunsets, peaceful mornings, great mountains, breathtaking rivers, remembering jungles, rice paddies, rubber trees, white beaches and beautiful Asian girls.

Yet death is hanging around every corner, hanging over the day, like a thick fog,

to lose so much, but to gain things that no one would ever understand.

To see the horror of dying men, both friend and foe,

to take someone’s life, and all they will ever have.

It’s like being born again in a country that you love. And yet fear to,

you become a warrior

who must have great strength and pride, having to do and experience things that most men will never understand or endure.

It’s like being born again.

And another time where you become a hunter and the hunted

to experience fear and courage,

and to be able to overcome the fear that consumes you.

Then one day, you’re back home

with where everyone seems to be a stranger.

You’re a different person now.

And your loved ones seem estranged, and you don’t fit in

you now drink and fight?

Is the world crazy?

Or are you?

Where do you belong?

Sometimes I long to go back to the other country,

my other country to be a great warrior again.

So does this make me crazy to feel this way.

It’s the end of the poem of this one, called Born of two countries.

We’ll be sharing more of these poems in days to come.

We honor those who honorably served, we remember those who fought and died in Vietnam, we remember those who have served in our nation’s military, especially in combat operations, and had to do things that they don’t want to talk about.

But we as Americans who live today, we benefit from the sacrifice they made because we live in a country and others in other countries live hopefully free lives because of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

Yet they carry with them the emotional scars of that experience. And we as Americans should remember that and remember them and try to help them as they acclimate into society.

Operation eagle’s wings, we’ve been doing this for about 10 years now. First in Oregon now in Tennessee, and our goal is to go nationwide with this.

Our mission statement is honoring those who honorably serve, and leaving no one behind. It’s a code of honor in the American military to leave no one on the field of battle.

And men have died to go back in and rescue wounded soldiers and even the bodies of soldiers because there’s this code that you’ll do not leave a fallen brother behind.

And that is something I believe that makes America unique in the military, and unique and just our psyche of who we are as Americans. We appreciate these poems.

We will continue to share them with you. This is operation eagle’s wings honoring all who serve and leaving no one behind and USA heartbeat the pulse of freedom.