I was watching USA about a week ago, can't remember exactly when or what episode it was in but this story is centered around the Admiral's comment, "Commander, that war cast some long shadows."

AJ's POV

I was young when I was sent into Vietnam, in my early twenties and still green. I had the training necessary to complete all the missions handed to me. Of course we were never given training on how to deal with the loss of one of your brothers but you learned how to deal with it, it came with the job, with the war.

How is it that a boy of 16 can go into those same jungles with no training and still come out relatively unscathed? Harm might not have been badly injured by a bullet or knife but he suffers from the emotional scars like the rest of us, perhaps even more so.

Christmas Eve is supposed to be a time of love and joy, instead a little boy of 6 learned how to dread the day when two men came to tell his mother and him that his father was missing in action.

I would have 'killed' to know what it was like to have a child that cared so much about me that he would leave the comforts of La Jolla to search the jungles of Vietnam for me. To have someone so devoted to my memory that he would risk his own life to find out the truth of mine.

I don't think that Harm even realizes what he is doing. He is showing that he cares, not just about his father, but everyone he comes in contact with, especially those who were in Vietnam. He sees a man who has fought in Vietnam and the only thing he can think to do is help them in any way shape or form possible.

He's a man driven by emotions and his past and that has aided him greatly throughout his life so far but how much more can he take. He gives but does not take. He has friends but does not allow people in. What kind of lonely existence is that? I have chosen to not bring another female into my life but Harm has never really brought one in at all. How long will he suffer for a war he did not fight in? How long will he suffer for loving his father? How long will his obsessions keep him tangled in their masses?