CPL. Marc Roy
U.S. Army – Infantry
Americal Division – 196th Light Infantry Brigade
Charlie Company
A Shau Valley, Khe Sanh, Chu Lai, Da Nang,
Dông Hà, Vietnam
9/2/70 – 9/1/76
U.S. Army – Infantry
Americal Division – 196th Light Infantry Brigade
Charlie Company
A Shau Valley, Khe Sanh, Chu Lai, Da Nang,
Dông Hà, Vietnam
9/2/70 – 9/1/76
Marc Roy was born in Canada in the small rural town of Beauceville, Quebec in 1949. His father was a farmer and a lumber jack. He worked a small family farm with cows and chickens that the family used for its own use. Being a lumberjack meant going to where the trees were and that would often take him away from home for a few months at a time. “He would go for a few months, make enough money to come back home and we survived like that.” When his father found himself with consistent lumberjack work in Greenville, Maine, the family moved. “Right near Moose Lake.”
In the early 1960’s Marc and his parents, his aunt, uncle and cousin traveled to Connecticut to visit another of his father’s brother. During the visit the uncle asked his two brothers if they would like to see where he worked. The brothers decided to go to where their brother worked. The two brothers liked it and were hired by Whitney Chain Company in Hartford, Connecticut on the spot. Marc and his mother went back to Maine to pack up their belongings and then returned to Hartford.
The family moved into the Charter Oak Terrace housing development and rented an apartment there for a year. His father decided to buy an old Victorian rooming house across from Hartford Hospital. It had three floors and a few tenants. “It was an old house, but very pretty.” His mother ran the boarding house and along the way gave birth to three daughters and another son. Marc remembered she could be tough with the tenants when she had to. “She spoke very little English but was able to straighten out the tenants sometimes.”
Marc attended St. Anne’s Catholic grammar school and then went on to Hartford High School. He didn’t really like school and dropped out in his sophomore year. He really wanted to work and make money. He found a job in a grocery store and then did some construction work. Marc decided to go look for work in Canada where he had many relatives. He was not able to find work that he wanted so he returned to U.S.
It was the late ‘60’s and the Vietnam War was in full swing. Although Marc wasn’t a U.S. citizen, he was eligible to be drafted. When Marc returned to Connecticut the Selective Service draft caught up with him. He was told to report to New Haven, Connecticut for a physical and by September of 1970 he was attending bootcamp at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Marc made it through bootcamp without any problems. “It was ok with me.” He then received orders to report to Fort Ord located on Monterey Bay, California for his advanced individual training (AIT) for infantry soldiers. At the end of AIT Marc recalled receiving orders to report to Vietnam via Seattle, Washington.
Marc flew from Seattle to Hawaii and then on to Long Binh, Vietnam. He arrived on February 18th, 1972 and at that time Long Binh was the U.S. Army’s largest base in South Vietnam. “It was a big, big base.” One of Marc’s big concerns was the unrelenting heat and humidity of Vietnam, but his biggest concern was getting his weapon. “We didn’t have our guns yet.” Marc was in Long Binh only one night before he jumped on a convoy to link up with his unit at a fire base further north.
Marc was assigned to Charlie Company of the 196th Light Infantry which was part of the Americal Division. Most of his time was spent on missions in the Quang Tri Province near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). The DMZ was established in 1954 after the French withdrawal from Vietnam. The DMZ ran across Vietnam from the Laotian border in the west to the South China Sea in the east. It has also been referred to as the 17th parallel, or 17 degrees north of the earth’s equator. The DMZ divided the communist north from South Vietnam which was backed by the United States.
Marc’s first day started with an early morning bomb run attempting to take out enemy assets. When the dust settled the 10 men of Charlie Company left the fire base and went out on patrol. “We crossed the river and followed some trails…there were a lot of trails there. It was my first time being out there and I didn’t know what to expect, then somebody started shooting.” It was a sniper. The sergeant directed the company to take a different trail to avoid enemy snipers. The trail led through the dense triple canopy jungle and eventually ended at a North Vietnamese supply depot. “Before they would infiltrate into the south they would go through there and pick up ammo.”
The sergeant ordered the men to take what documents they could find and destroy the ammo dump. Marc grabbed an enemy rucksack. After the supply dump was destroyed Charlie Company retraced its steps on the trial they followed in and soon found themselves in a firefight. “They were all around us. They started shooting and throwing grenades. They had us surrounded.” The men found a nearby bomb crater and decided to take cover there. “The medic was behind me and ‘Tiny’ and ‘Red’. I turned around and the medic was on the ground. He got hit.” Marc and Red attended to the medic. “I gave my rifle to Tiny. He was a big guy, and he was shooting with both weapons.” Marc and Red carried the medic into the crater, stabilized his stomach wound and gave him a shot of morphine. The medic had ammo magazines stored in a belt running across his waist and when he was shot the magazines exploded.
The men were pinned down by the heavy enemy fire. They radioed for a helicopter to medevac the medic. When Marc and Red saw the helicopter approaching, they picked up the wounded medic and ran toward the helicopter. The enemy also saw the incoming helicopter and turned their fire on the chopper as it descended. The medevac was forced to abort the landing and Red and Marc had to sprint back to the bomb crater carrying the medic.
As the medevac flew off, they advised Charlie Company they could see more enemy were headed in their direction. Fortunately, Cobra gunships arrived and poured their weapons onto the enemy below. Marc recalled throughout the afternoon Cobras filled with ammo arrived to relieve the Cobras that had emptied their lead on the enemy. Later in the day a medevac flight was able to land and pick up the injured medic. Marc and Red carried the medic to the chopper. “I wanted to jump on the chopper myself, I looked back and I couldn’t do it.” Marc returned to the battle and the fighting went on all afternoon. The men knew they couldn’t stay there after the darkness settled in but there seemed to be no way out. Then the enemy started a fire which was burning in the direction of Charlie Company. “Now we had no choice.” The men began an escape that involved crossing two rivers. “We had to go in the water with the guns up over our head because that was the only way out. We were getting shot at…but all nine of us made it out of there.” Helicopters were waiting to exfil the weary men. Marc had received his battle baptism.
Charlie Company’s next assignment was at the Khe Sanh fire base. “Another bad place.” The fire base had been overrun by the North Vietnamese the day before. The men jumped off the helicopter and were given the task of retrieving the dead and looking for body parts and dog tags. When the choppers returned to take Charlie Company back to Chu Lai they came under attack by the North Vietnamese. The pilots radioed Charlie Company that the area was too hot, and they would have to come back. Just before dark the helicopters were able to land and bring the men back to the base at Chu Lai.
While Marc was in Chu Lai his Captain told him there were APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier) that could not find their way to the base. Marc was sent to find the APCs and troops and bring them back. “I was shot at a few times, probably a sniper.” Marc found the APCs and while he was leading them back to the fire base his jeep hit a wet spot on the trail, skidded off the road, flipped over and landed in a pond. Luckily Marc was not injured, but he had to return the next day to retrieve the jeep.
Charlie Company spent some time in the A Shau Valley. “Another bad place. A lot of stuff happened there. We were always out in the jungle.” Marc recalled the extensive tunnel system the North Vietnamese had built to hide troops, food, ammo and supplies. On one mission Charlie Company discovered a fire pit that was still hot and it appeared enemy soldiers were having a meal and they fled into the jungle when they heard Charlie Company coming. One of the GIs found an entrance to a tunnel and they sent Jimmy, Charlie Company’s tunnel rat down into the tunnel where he found what appeared to be a hospital. Tunnel rats were the men chosen to crawl into the underground tunnel complexes, usually armed with only a flashlight and a pistol. Jimmy was South Vietnamese and had once been captured by the enemy but had managed to escape. “He was a small guy. He knew what to do. We were lucky to have him.”
On another occasion the company walked into a minefield. Marc spotted a mine and told the soldier leading the patrol to stop and made him aware of the mine he was near. The men were told to carefully and exactly retrace their steps to avoid a detonation. Everyone made it out. An artillery strike was called in to detonate the minefield.
The boys of Charlie Company would often patrol at night making it virtually impossible to see the soldier in front of you. On one particular night the GIs got separated and they spent the night in the jungle until they could reunite at daybreak.
Charlie Company was frequently attacked at night. “They tried to keep us awake” and sleep deprived. The jungle held many dangers besides the enemy. There were the never-ending heat and oppressive humidity, insect and snakes. Marc recalls several occasions when they slept in the jungle when he would wake up and find a snake underneath him. “They liked the warmth.” There was the occasional alligator. Marc recalled one night in the jungle setting claymore mines around the perimeter of his position and one of the mines was triggered. The next morning, he went to investigate what triggered the mine and found it was an alligator.
Marc recalled a firebase on Hill 951. Charlie Company used the firebase to shower and get some hot food. They came under a mortar attack, and Marc was in a bunker fairly well protected. One of the men was playing cards in one of the hooch’s when the mortars hit. He was killed. “I remember his name. Stout. He had given me his lighter.” Stout was a short timer and scheduled to be going home in the very near future.
Marc always caried as much ammunition and grenades as he could. Well in excess of what soldiers typically carried. “I didn’t want to run out of anything.” Marc recalled being on patrol on a day where the temperature was well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity sucked every last ounce of moisture from his body. He reached the point where he couldn’t go on and threw himself into a bomb crater that had partially filled with water. “I had heat exhaustion”. His captain came over and helped Marc get his rucksack off. He couldn’t believe the weight of the rucksack and asked Marc, ‘Zeus, what do you got in there? You’re carrying too much.’ Marc got a Dust Off to an Air Force hospital to recuperate. “Dust Off” is the military nickname for a medevac flight.
Marc recalled carrying a .45 caliber pistol, an M-16 and later being issued an M-203; an M-16 with a grenade launcher. Later in his tour he was given the responsibility to carry the M-60 machine gun. “That’s a heavy gun.” Marc was asked to be the platoon radio operator. “You had to backpack the radio. That was heavy too.”
Carrying the radio, Marc found himself next to the Captain or Lieutenant during the patrols. He recalled one patrol in the A Shau Valley where the Lieutenant was walking point and Marc was following behind him and a sergeant following behind Marc. “He stepped on a booby trap and landed next to me. The lieutenant and me walk over it. We could have tripped it. He tripped it and we had to call for a medevac
After 13 months Marc left Vietnam on March 8th, 1972. He boarded a plane in Da Nang headed for Okinawa, Japan and then on to Alaska and finally Long Beach, California. Marc then flew back to Hartford, Connecticut. He didn’t tell anyone he was coming home, and he vividly recalled taking a cab to his house. It was a Saturday and he recalled walking up his driveway and seeing his mother in the kitchen doing dishes. Tears came to his eyes 44 years later when he recalled opening the door and the emotional reunion with his mother. One by one, his sisters came in to see him followed by his father who came home from working overtime. That night all of his uncle and aunts and cousins came over for a big celebration.
Marc took some time to relax and decompress before he went to the local construction workers union hall to get his old job back. Although he was promised a spot when he returned, they told him they didn’t have anything. Marc decided to join some guys he knew and work as a drywall contractor for them. Eventually he went into business for himself. He also remained active in the Army Reserves until 1976.
In 1973 Marc was at a bar in Hartford and saw a girl across the room that he wanted to dance with. It was Bernice Lavertu and she said yes. In April 1978 the couple was married. In 1974 Marc bought a two-family house built in 1860 and converted it into a four-family house. Over time he remodeled the entire home.
Like many veterans Post Traumatic Stress has found its way into Marc’s life. “It didn’t really hit me until the 1990’s. I have nightmares about it (Vietnam)”. Marc recalled one frightening incident while he was working. He wasn’t feeling well so he packed up his equipment into his truck and gave his doctor a call. His doctor told him to come right in. While driving to the doctor’s office Marc had a panic attack forcing him to pull over. He was hyperventilating but was alert enough to find a paper bag and breath into it. When his breathing returned to normal, he was able to continue to the doctor’s office. The doctor brought him into the office right away, had him sit on a couch and the doctor began to play his violin which helped Marc relax. “I think that’s when my PTSD started hitting me really bad.” Bernice recalls several occasions when she woke up in the middle of the night to find Marc on the bedroom floor.
When Marc was discharged from active duty, he was unaware he had been eligible for any commendations. Many years later when he began attending the Ellington Veterans Coffee House, some of the guys looked at his DD-214 and helped him get his medals. Among his commendations are a Bronze Star for meritorious service in connection with military operations against a hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam from March 1st, 1971, to December 31, 1971. Marc also received The Air Medal for participating in more than 25 aerial missions. An aerial mission includes infantry troops transported by helicopter to the site of a firefight.
Marc, when you went to Vietnam you weren’t yet a citizen of the United States, but you did your duty and subjected yourself to the harsh conditions of an unforgiving jungle and the endless series of firefights against a determine enemy in their homeland. You are not responsible for the cards you were dealt but you found a way to play your hand so you would survive and return home to your family. Thank you for all of your sacrifices and all that you endured and continue to endure on our behalf.
In the early 1960’s Marc and his parents, his aunt, uncle and cousin traveled to Connecticut to visit another of his father’s brother. During the visit the uncle asked his two brothers if they would like to see where he worked. The brothers decided to go to where their brother worked. The two brothers liked it and were hired by Whitney Chain Company in Hartford, Connecticut on the spot. Marc and his mother went back to Maine to pack up their belongings and then returned to Hartford.
The family moved into the Charter Oak Terrace housing development and rented an apartment there for a year. His father decided to buy an old Victorian rooming house across from Hartford Hospital. It had three floors and a few tenants. “It was an old house, but very pretty.” His mother ran the boarding house and along the way gave birth to three daughters and another son. Marc remembered she could be tough with the tenants when she had to. “She spoke very little English but was able to straighten out the tenants sometimes.”
Marc attended St. Anne’s Catholic grammar school and then went on to Hartford High School. He didn’t really like school and dropped out in his sophomore year. He really wanted to work and make money. He found a job in a grocery store and then did some construction work. Marc decided to go look for work in Canada where he had many relatives. He was not able to find work that he wanted so he returned to U.S.
It was the late ‘60’s and the Vietnam War was in full swing. Although Marc wasn’t a U.S. citizen, he was eligible to be drafted. When Marc returned to Connecticut the Selective Service draft caught up with him. He was told to report to New Haven, Connecticut for a physical and by September of 1970 he was attending bootcamp at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Marc made it through bootcamp without any problems. “It was ok with me.” He then received orders to report to Fort Ord located on Monterey Bay, California for his advanced individual training (AIT) for infantry soldiers. At the end of AIT Marc recalled receiving orders to report to Vietnam via Seattle, Washington.
Marc flew from Seattle to Hawaii and then on to Long Binh, Vietnam. He arrived on February 18th, 1972 and at that time Long Binh was the U.S. Army’s largest base in South Vietnam. “It was a big, big base.” One of Marc’s big concerns was the unrelenting heat and humidity of Vietnam, but his biggest concern was getting his weapon. “We didn’t have our guns yet.” Marc was in Long Binh only one night before he jumped on a convoy to link up with his unit at a fire base further north.
Marc was assigned to Charlie Company of the 196th Light Infantry which was part of the Americal Division. Most of his time was spent on missions in the Quang Tri Province near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). The DMZ was established in 1954 after the French withdrawal from Vietnam. The DMZ ran across Vietnam from the Laotian border in the west to the South China Sea in the east. It has also been referred to as the 17th parallel, or 17 degrees north of the earth’s equator. The DMZ divided the communist north from South Vietnam which was backed by the United States.
Marc’s first day started with an early morning bomb run attempting to take out enemy assets. When the dust settled the 10 men of Charlie Company left the fire base and went out on patrol. “We crossed the river and followed some trails…there were a lot of trails there. It was my first time being out there and I didn’t know what to expect, then somebody started shooting.” It was a sniper. The sergeant directed the company to take a different trail to avoid enemy snipers. The trail led through the dense triple canopy jungle and eventually ended at a North Vietnamese supply depot. “Before they would infiltrate into the south they would go through there and pick up ammo.”
The sergeant ordered the men to take what documents they could find and destroy the ammo dump. Marc grabbed an enemy rucksack. After the supply dump was destroyed Charlie Company retraced its steps on the trial they followed in and soon found themselves in a firefight. “They were all around us. They started shooting and throwing grenades. They had us surrounded.” The men found a nearby bomb crater and decided to take cover there. “The medic was behind me and ‘Tiny’ and ‘Red’. I turned around and the medic was on the ground. He got hit.” Marc and Red attended to the medic. “I gave my rifle to Tiny. He was a big guy, and he was shooting with both weapons.” Marc and Red carried the medic into the crater, stabilized his stomach wound and gave him a shot of morphine. The medic had ammo magazines stored in a belt running across his waist and when he was shot the magazines exploded.
The men were pinned down by the heavy enemy fire. They radioed for a helicopter to medevac the medic. When Marc and Red saw the helicopter approaching, they picked up the wounded medic and ran toward the helicopter. The enemy also saw the incoming helicopter and turned their fire on the chopper as it descended. The medevac was forced to abort the landing and Red and Marc had to sprint back to the bomb crater carrying the medic.
As the medevac flew off, they advised Charlie Company they could see more enemy were headed in their direction. Fortunately, Cobra gunships arrived and poured their weapons onto the enemy below. Marc recalled throughout the afternoon Cobras filled with ammo arrived to relieve the Cobras that had emptied their lead on the enemy. Later in the day a medevac flight was able to land and pick up the injured medic. Marc and Red carried the medic to the chopper. “I wanted to jump on the chopper myself, I looked back and I couldn’t do it.” Marc returned to the battle and the fighting went on all afternoon. The men knew they couldn’t stay there after the darkness settled in but there seemed to be no way out. Then the enemy started a fire which was burning in the direction of Charlie Company. “Now we had no choice.” The men began an escape that involved crossing two rivers. “We had to go in the water with the guns up over our head because that was the only way out. We were getting shot at…but all nine of us made it out of there.” Helicopters were waiting to exfil the weary men. Marc had received his battle baptism.
Charlie Company’s next assignment was at the Khe Sanh fire base. “Another bad place.” The fire base had been overrun by the North Vietnamese the day before. The men jumped off the helicopter and were given the task of retrieving the dead and looking for body parts and dog tags. When the choppers returned to take Charlie Company back to Chu Lai they came under attack by the North Vietnamese. The pilots radioed Charlie Company that the area was too hot, and they would have to come back. Just before dark the helicopters were able to land and bring the men back to the base at Chu Lai.
While Marc was in Chu Lai his Captain told him there were APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier) that could not find their way to the base. Marc was sent to find the APCs and troops and bring them back. “I was shot at a few times, probably a sniper.” Marc found the APCs and while he was leading them back to the fire base his jeep hit a wet spot on the trail, skidded off the road, flipped over and landed in a pond. Luckily Marc was not injured, but he had to return the next day to retrieve the jeep.
Charlie Company spent some time in the A Shau Valley. “Another bad place. A lot of stuff happened there. We were always out in the jungle.” Marc recalled the extensive tunnel system the North Vietnamese had built to hide troops, food, ammo and supplies. On one mission Charlie Company discovered a fire pit that was still hot and it appeared enemy soldiers were having a meal and they fled into the jungle when they heard Charlie Company coming. One of the GIs found an entrance to a tunnel and they sent Jimmy, Charlie Company’s tunnel rat down into the tunnel where he found what appeared to be a hospital. Tunnel rats were the men chosen to crawl into the underground tunnel complexes, usually armed with only a flashlight and a pistol. Jimmy was South Vietnamese and had once been captured by the enemy but had managed to escape. “He was a small guy. He knew what to do. We were lucky to have him.”
On another occasion the company walked into a minefield. Marc spotted a mine and told the soldier leading the patrol to stop and made him aware of the mine he was near. The men were told to carefully and exactly retrace their steps to avoid a detonation. Everyone made it out. An artillery strike was called in to detonate the minefield.
The boys of Charlie Company would often patrol at night making it virtually impossible to see the soldier in front of you. On one particular night the GIs got separated and they spent the night in the jungle until they could reunite at daybreak.
Charlie Company was frequently attacked at night. “They tried to keep us awake” and sleep deprived. The jungle held many dangers besides the enemy. There were the never-ending heat and oppressive humidity, insect and snakes. Marc recalls several occasions when they slept in the jungle when he would wake up and find a snake underneath him. “They liked the warmth.” There was the occasional alligator. Marc recalled one night in the jungle setting claymore mines around the perimeter of his position and one of the mines was triggered. The next morning, he went to investigate what triggered the mine and found it was an alligator.
Marc recalled a firebase on Hill 951. Charlie Company used the firebase to shower and get some hot food. They came under a mortar attack, and Marc was in a bunker fairly well protected. One of the men was playing cards in one of the hooch’s when the mortars hit. He was killed. “I remember his name. Stout. He had given me his lighter.” Stout was a short timer and scheduled to be going home in the very near future.
Marc always caried as much ammunition and grenades as he could. Well in excess of what soldiers typically carried. “I didn’t want to run out of anything.” Marc recalled being on patrol on a day where the temperature was well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity sucked every last ounce of moisture from his body. He reached the point where he couldn’t go on and threw himself into a bomb crater that had partially filled with water. “I had heat exhaustion”. His captain came over and helped Marc get his rucksack off. He couldn’t believe the weight of the rucksack and asked Marc, ‘Zeus, what do you got in there? You’re carrying too much.’ Marc got a Dust Off to an Air Force hospital to recuperate. “Dust Off” is the military nickname for a medevac flight.
Marc recalled carrying a .45 caliber pistol, an M-16 and later being issued an M-203; an M-16 with a grenade launcher. Later in his tour he was given the responsibility to carry the M-60 machine gun. “That’s a heavy gun.” Marc was asked to be the platoon radio operator. “You had to backpack the radio. That was heavy too.”
Carrying the radio, Marc found himself next to the Captain or Lieutenant during the patrols. He recalled one patrol in the A Shau Valley where the Lieutenant was walking point and Marc was following behind him and a sergeant following behind Marc. “He stepped on a booby trap and landed next to me. The lieutenant and me walk over it. We could have tripped it. He tripped it and we had to call for a medevac
After 13 months Marc left Vietnam on March 8th, 1972. He boarded a plane in Da Nang headed for Okinawa, Japan and then on to Alaska and finally Long Beach, California. Marc then flew back to Hartford, Connecticut. He didn’t tell anyone he was coming home, and he vividly recalled taking a cab to his house. It was a Saturday and he recalled walking up his driveway and seeing his mother in the kitchen doing dishes. Tears came to his eyes 44 years later when he recalled opening the door and the emotional reunion with his mother. One by one, his sisters came in to see him followed by his father who came home from working overtime. That night all of his uncle and aunts and cousins came over for a big celebration.
Marc took some time to relax and decompress before he went to the local construction workers union hall to get his old job back. Although he was promised a spot when he returned, they told him they didn’t have anything. Marc decided to join some guys he knew and work as a drywall contractor for them. Eventually he went into business for himself. He also remained active in the Army Reserves until 1976.
In 1973 Marc was at a bar in Hartford and saw a girl across the room that he wanted to dance with. It was Bernice Lavertu and she said yes. In April 1978 the couple was married. In 1974 Marc bought a two-family house built in 1860 and converted it into a four-family house. Over time he remodeled the entire home.
Like many veterans Post Traumatic Stress has found its way into Marc’s life. “It didn’t really hit me until the 1990’s. I have nightmares about it (Vietnam)”. Marc recalled one frightening incident while he was working. He wasn’t feeling well so he packed up his equipment into his truck and gave his doctor a call. His doctor told him to come right in. While driving to the doctor’s office Marc had a panic attack forcing him to pull over. He was hyperventilating but was alert enough to find a paper bag and breath into it. When his breathing returned to normal, he was able to continue to the doctor’s office. The doctor brought him into the office right away, had him sit on a couch and the doctor began to play his violin which helped Marc relax. “I think that’s when my PTSD started hitting me really bad.” Bernice recalls several occasions when she woke up in the middle of the night to find Marc on the bedroom floor.
When Marc was discharged from active duty, he was unaware he had been eligible for any commendations. Many years later when he began attending the Ellington Veterans Coffee House, some of the guys looked at his DD-214 and helped him get his medals. Among his commendations are a Bronze Star for meritorious service in connection with military operations against a hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam from March 1st, 1971, to December 31, 1971. Marc also received The Air Medal for participating in more than 25 aerial missions. An aerial mission includes infantry troops transported by helicopter to the site of a firefight.
Marc, when you went to Vietnam you weren’t yet a citizen of the United States, but you did your duty and subjected yourself to the harsh conditions of an unforgiving jungle and the endless series of firefights against a determine enemy in their homeland. You are not responsible for the cards you were dealt but you found a way to play your hand so you would survive and return home to your family. Thank you for all of your sacrifices and all that you endured and continue to endure on our behalf.