A Vietnam story

As you all know, I am a people person, a people watcher.

I can't just go into a small store and not find out the history

of the owner, what brought him there.

It's no wonder that I find myself in Gatlinburg

8 mile craft stores speaking to the owner of one of

these stores. His wares are of paintings of

cabins and woods, snow and wilderness.

Behind his glass case is vietnam memorabilia

so I have to ask,

"What brought you here to Gatlinburg and

this cute little store?"

He goes into a long story that had me enthralled.

When he was discharged from the war of Vietnam,

he was lost. A mess who had lost his wife and could

not be around anyone. The vets were not accepted home

so he felt he had no home. He felt that the only way to

save himself was to go away. He sold all he had and moved to

the wilderness of Alaska. He lived there for 22 months

where his closest and only neighbor was 9 miles away.

For almost two years he kept to himself and lived off the

wilderness. Had no electricity except on the coldest of months.

Enjoyed his 6 months of days and then 6 months of nights.

He worked odd jobs only to make enough money to feed himself

and provide the basic necessities.

He shows me this huge scar on his left arm, put there by a bear.

He did not go into society to take care of this.

Rather went to his neighbor 9 miles away and

together they doctored it up and he cared for it every

day until it became just a scar on his arm.

Finally, after 22 months he felt strong and well enough

to enter society once again.

He truly believed had it not been for his time away, he would have

killed himself or been trapped in a drug life.

I share that my brother was in Vietnam and he doesn't talk about

it much and I wondered often had he been a different man

had he not gone into Vietnam.

This stranger who now feels like a friend says

"We all would have been different men without that war."

I wonder, if the scar on his arm is smaller than the scar on

his heart brought on by the things he saw in Vietnam.