Absence of comrades in arms, real daily dangers that evolve to become the norm. When you are surrounded by everyday occurrences your perspective changes to meet whatever that particular reality is. An old man throwing rocks in a war zone might be perceived as harmless to those that know about him, but children who detonate explosives to kill anyone or anything near them, including themselves and suddenly the harmless old man isn’t as harmless to the stranger who was witness to the unseen danger of the children. One of the scariest times I went through was getting out of a truck in a village in Nam to guide Ralph, the driver, so he could back up safely. Within seconds I was surrounded by children hoping for candy...which I didn’t have. Xin loi...sorry about that. We got out of the village without further mishap, but my initial reaction to Ralph’s request for me to get out and guide him was two words ending in you.