SPC Benjamin Hartog Thank you Benjamin for your thoughtful and respected comments. I hope that I continue to provide the resources and motivation for many RP Members including yourself Benjamin. Thank you again for your service in the Vietnam War and your support here on RP. I'm gald you are here everyday and enjoy your commentary immensely!

Colonel: I feel an irrepressible yearning to exchange, as though by some magical transformation, my current lifestyle for a return to yesteryear when I served in Vietnam in 1967/68...to drift into the darkness and night rain of the monsoon season, down the long flowing rivers of the Mekong Delta where my eyes witnessed abysmal pathos and unalloyed misery, all in the framework of several months when my idealism was permanently altered by events that were beyond my control. And after all, in the present state of the world, I am inclined to regard any sort of idealism, be it ever so beclouded with indifference and ignorance (and questionable leadership), as a refreshing phenomenon. I wish I could siphon some of your idealism and make it my own. And it is in your idealism where I experience the magnificent camaraderie on Rally Point; that it can never be cheapened or sullied by my own pessimism, although at times I feel I that I should stop marching to the tune of my own doubts and replace them with the certitude and conviction of a man whose faith has been restored by an unforeseen miracle. Perhaps I am too diffident in sharing my perspective with other members of our tightknit RP community. I hope my accolades haven't embarrassed you Colonel but you do seem to command the confidence of all the members you are in touch with on RP. Your leadership facilitates introspection and I hope thenceforth you will continue to inspire and motivate all of your contacts on RP. Today is June 10, commencement day at the University of Washington and I am wondering if I should attend the ceremonies. In the meantime it is 2:00 Am - 2 hours past midnight and time for me to retire. A furtive, fitful wind, smelling of dirty vehicle exhaust sneaks in through my open window. It rushes aimlessly through the rain swept streets below my apartment, muttering and sighing to itself, seeking it knows not what, almost crazed and desperate, like a psychotic, drunken man, lost in the late night gloom. And I have, throughout all this sullen mystery, finally found a God who is worth worshiping.