To all the 'Grunts' who sat in those marsh fields and rice paddies of the place we call Nam .. Remember this?
I had a small am radio that somehow survived all the rains and muddy waters of the rice paddies.
That little (silvertone) radio was able to pick up some far away stations that would broadcast information from the home front and tunes that reminded us that we weren't forgotten back home.
I was seventeen, almost eighteen, right out of high school and in some foreign land that I had never even heard of!
I was 'wounded', (shot through the left leg) when I was dropped off by a Chinook in a country that wasn't my own.
I was Scared.
I was a Ranger (six months of extra abuse training) and I wasn't supposed to be scared but I was!
Well, anyways, I sat and I wondered .. did my family know where I was, how scared I was?
After three months in the field and feeling forgotten, I turned on my silvertone (batteries only lasted a month so you had to conserve) a voice came over the radio and said .. "Paul, if you can hear this .. your brother, your family wants you to know They are thinking of you and they love and miss you .. come home to us safely".
"They want to dedicate to you and to Every soldier in the field, this song".
I instantly became a fan of Gary Puckett that night .. nine thousand miles from home!
I'M HOME MOM!!(Yes, My name is Paul)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUwRlbTDbtg