Solo (27 page)

Are military people brainwashed? Is the military a cult? How is it not a cult? So overwhelming is a soldier’s inclination to believe what his leaders believe that the possibility that their war might have been wrong is still incomprehensible to most veterans of Vietnam—or of any other war, anywhere. If you run the risk of dying for a cause, it may not be easy to examine the cause.

So we immunize ourselves against the deaths of innocent people—civilians and soldiers.

I hear the voices of old soldiers, old friends even, speaking to me: You’re a softy. People die. War is hell.

It was never hell for me except for a short while here and there. I was just a pilot. And I loved to fly.