Chapter 9
"Going Home"
Oddly enough, I think leaving the 4077th to go home was one of the hardest days of my life. You take comfort when you're in a routine situation, there something about it that makes you feel 'okay." When you change its hard. And that day was hard. Harder than the day I first arrived in Korea.
I'll never forget driving away in the jeep. Leaving the place I grew up the most. In that place I was leaving, I learned integrity and friendship at the deepest level.
Did I miss the war? Did I miss the death? Of course not. I've done m best to forget some of the images I have seen, but a few stay etched in my mind.
When I left, I left my teddy bear on Hawkeye's cot. That teddy bear stayed close to me, I loved it dearly. But when I left that place, I let it go along with my childhood. I was becoming a man, it was time I let teddy bear and that went with it behind me. Not that I would forget it, but I was moving on. No one ever said that past had to disappear to move on into the future. The memories I was leaving are imprinted on my heart and life and no amount of time or change of scenery will make it fade away. The picture of the camp still lingers in my mind, is the picture fading? Yes. But every now and then bits and pieces of life there jump into my mind. And of you who have been through war know what I mean. You make a connection with people and places that you cant do back in the world.
Hawkeye, BJ, Margaret, Trapper, Klinger, Charles, Father, Col. Potter and Henry Blake. And all of you special people at the 4077th. Thank you for helping me grow up and forever being a part of me, my children, their children and forever.
"Going Home"
Oddly enough, I think leaving the 4077th to go home was one of the hardest days of my life. You take comfort when you're in a routine situation, there something about it that makes you feel 'okay." When you change its hard. And that day was hard. Harder than the day I first arrived in Korea.
I'll never forget driving away in the jeep. Leaving the place I grew up the most. In that place I was leaving, I learned integrity and friendship at the deepest level.
Did I miss the war? Did I miss the death? Of course not. I've done m best to forget some of the images I have seen, but a few stay etched in my mind.
When I left, I left my teddy bear on Hawkeye's cot. That teddy bear stayed close to me, I loved it dearly. But when I left that place, I let it go along with my childhood. I was becoming a man, it was time I let teddy bear and that went with it behind me. Not that I would forget it, but I was moving on. No one ever said that past had to disappear to move on into the future. The memories I was leaving are imprinted on my heart and life and no amount of time or change of scenery will make it fade away. The picture of the camp still lingers in my mind, is the picture fading? Yes. But every now and then bits and pieces of life there jump into my mind. And of you who have been through war know what I mean. You make a connection with people and places that you cant do back in the world.
Hawkeye, BJ, Margaret, Trapper, Klinger, Charles, Father, Col. Potter and Henry Blake. And all of you special people at the 4077th. Thank you for helping me grow up and forever being a part of me, my children, their children and forever.
