The alienation I felt and still feel from fellow Americans who never served.

Fear of the local people of what would happen to them when we left.

Giving up my youth for country.

The heat, the rain, the mud, the dust and the first time I was shot at.

I remember being very glad I was stationed at Marble Mountain instead of a rice paddy.

With all the failures, hard-knocks and close encounters, Bill Gross reckons his three years in the Navy during the Vietnam War was a good investment of time. In fact, the lessons learned there proved valuable throughout his storied life.

Hunkering down in a bunker while rocket and mortar fire rained down.

The death of my 19-year-old brother.

Performing triage on a hundred wounded at Khe Sanh.

The constant feeling that you might get hit at any moment.

The recovery of CH47A on May 21, 1968.

I lost me forever in Vietnam.

Some visibly shaken, laughing, cursing the VC. I heard the words: “I guess your orientation to the darkroom was a success.”

The stupidity of the U.S. projecting its power around the world.

Troops' continued devotion to duty when abandoned by politicians and public in general.

I was a supporter of containment until it all unraveled into a political lie.

The heat and voracious bugs.

We set a precedent with that war that we will leave our friends twisting in the wind.

I was fighting for my country but mostly trying to get home in one piece.