Battle-scarred skull found at Culloden

[tripleblessed]

My family has a long tradition of serving, but not talking about it. At nine or ten I read a history of the US Marine
Corps, and thought for a while that's where I'd serve. With continued reading, and a concerted unwillingness of
my relatives to share much, I realized it wasn't about glory. Service, sacrifice, honor, standing up for your beliefs,
yes. Glory, not so much. Nam changed my understanding completely, and the stories I got doing counseling and
healing with those that got back to the world but didn't quite make it home were horrific. All too often I was seeing
their memories before they told them, and no one should be asked to go where they had been.

My cousin Billy never was willing to talk about how he got his three silver Stars, Six Bronze Stars (with V), purple
hearts, or the rest on his chest. What was apparent was that he was regularly visited by the kids he wasn't able
to send back home to their mothers, and those memories ate him up. He kept thinking he should found a way
to save them. Agent Orange finally gave him relief.