I have read with very careful interest all the current messages with regards to the Civil War on the Border, Kansas-Missouri, the Indian Territory and Arkansas. As a veteran of Vietnam (69-71) I had the privilege of serving a as a sergeant in the 5th Special Forces for various posts. I had been trained by the very best we had at the time, men who had learned their lessons from WW II and Korea. The training I received taught me how to survive for extended periods in the bush, some times as long as eight days in close contact with the NVA and VC. As such I ended my service with three purple hearts, twice decorated for gallantry and three times for valor. All earned with blood. So I am not inexperienced in these matters of judging post traumatic stress disorders. The simple fact is after TET 68 our war had gone on too long - producing such tragic events as My Lai and etc. I saw such things as part of the Striker teams. Only my training and a code instilled in me by those great men wouldn't allow me to sink to the level of the thugs that I saw. This is the same thing that happened in our Civil war. I was appalled when I started to read of those events how so much we have forgotten and failed to apply in my war. Those lessons are even now being ignored and men such as my eldest son, who is now home from his third tour with two purple hearts himself, has said he has seen enough. What we are sorting out now in the War Between the States and on the border is an understanding of how such men as My Great Grandfather managed to keep some kind of a moral compass while so many others were willing to ignore values and kill simply to be just killing. As historians it behooves all of us to seek the truth and to pass on the facts as best we might and sound the alarm loudly that these lessons must not be forgotten.