Best Friends

I’ve got two new best friends. We met in 1980, one after the other but we never really connected at that time. It wasn’t until years later that we got caught up and became serious with one another. We found out that we had a lot in common. It was like one big happy(?)reunion when it happened. My friends and I now spend 24/7 together. I call them by their nicknames, Agent Orange and PTSD. We’re very well acquainted because the relationships developed slowly. We have intimate knowledge of one another. Prostate cancer, Ischemic Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, Peripheral Neuropathy of the arms and legs. Isolation, depression, uncontrollable anger, poor decision making. But the best part is that I’ve got my Battle Buddies with me. Leslie and Linda. The guys, Louie, Rich, Edgar, Peter, Arnold, Fred, Don D., Bill, Dov, Paul, Don A., Louis, Randy’s gone, Richie, William, Gerry, Dex, Frank, Jeff, Michael, Dennis, James, Estill, they all have my back. My bro’s. So I may not get to be that 97 year old, stoop shouldered vet going back to DC to visit the Wall on a 75th anniversary flight or take the 16 hour long haul to return to Vietnam to meet my former enemy all these years later. At least I’ll have the memory of my group, my guys, my buddies always there to help me and one another.