Crack the Sky

“There are no great men, there are only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.”-- Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr.

Who would have thought that such a minor decision would lead to such a fabulous experience?

Most mornings on my way to the office I stop by a local drug story to pick up my daily supply of that satanic beverage known as diet soda. (Yes, I know this crap is bad for me, but that’s not what this story is about.)

The store is vast and it is part of what was once the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, but now it belongs to some orange-haired reality show psychotic whose name escapes me.

There are registers one either side of the store and I usually check out on the Wall Street side, rather than the Pine Street side.

On Thursday, however, I felt like a doing something different, breaking my routine even in the slightest way, to see if there’s any truth behind the whole Butterfly Effect business.

The Pine Street register is usually manned by an older gentleman named George, who is very outgoing and has a great sense of humor. On Halloween he wore some goofy hat and I can only imagine what he’s got planned for Christmas.

I was half-listening to George speaking with the woman ahead of me and it sounded like he was trying to cheer her up.

We started chatting as soon as I got to the register and George told me that “life is too short to be unhappy.”

“I was in Vietnam,” he said. “I saw some awful things, so I know how important being happy is.”

I was surprised to hear that he was a veteran and I immediately thanked him for his service.

Old Soldiers

“That must have been a terrible experience,” I said.

George paused a moment before speaking.

“Do you what the Tet Offensive is?”

“You were in the Tet Offensive?” I asked, not believing my ears.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “I saw men killed right in front of me.”

The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks on cities and towns throughout Vietnam.

The attacks began on January 31, 1968, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Vietnam's most important holiday.

On the eve of the attacks, Viet Cong leaders told their forces to “crack the sky, shake the Earth.”

It is considered the turning point of that disastrous conflict because even though the North Vietnamese and Vietcong suffered heavy losses they scored a political and psychological victory because it contradicted the U.S. government’s rosy picture of the war’s progress.

Listening to George speak, I was taken back in time to those awful days, when the war dragged on and on while the death toll kept rising.

I recalled the expressions like "a just peace," “better red than dead,” and “honorable withdrawal”, while, each week, Walter Cronkite told the country how many soldiers had been killed in the previous seven days.

I thought of how the war tore this country apart, of the protests and riots that erupted on college campuses across America.

And here I was talking someone who had survived that terrible war.

“I had a lot of trouble when I got home,” George said, “but I had a my wife to get me through it. She was a good woman and she died from cancer five years ago.”

At that moment I thought I was going to start crying. I told George that my dad had fought in World War II and that I was certain the war had scarred him far beyond the physical injuries he suffered.

I had to get to work, so I gave George a fist bump, wished him well, and went on my way.

Thanksgiving is coming up this week and God knows I have a lot to be grateful for, including my family, my job and my life.

I’m thankful to George and all the other soldiers who served this country.

And I’m so glad I chose the Pine Street side.