6th letter

i was  just thinking about my old friend "Hoss" .. he was from  Tennessee... then we were active  in Vietnam we were always  kept  separate . we  couldn,t  socialized or even  talk to  other soldiers  because  of our secret operations ,, when we were " in  country" we  couldn,t  shower or shave  or use soap or even toothpaste... nothing  that would give us  away ...  so we were isolated at time ... and i remember one  nite  we were watching  the  tv programm.. and they  said   that our troops  have  never  invaded  north Vietnam... and Hoss said ' I,ve  spent  more  time  in  north Vietnam than  Ho Chi Min.. Ha!!! ..  . we were always  up  there... we,d strike  and then  it would  be  a death   race back to  the border !!! we,d be on our  own  till we got back to the   border...  they wouldn,t  even try  to rescue  us  if we were  behind  enemy lines...  officially we didn,t  exist ... if  captured  we were treated  as  spies and  tortured  and  executed ... that,s why  we couldn,t  leave  anyone behind .. it was a desperate  brotherhood.. one trick  we,d  do to slow  down our  pursuers  is  this :
 the rear  guard would  lay  a  booby  trap  mine  on the  trail ... it would be just obvious  enough  that the enemy  would see  it  and run  around  it ... and  farther down  the  trail  he would  put another one...  just  the same ...  onle we,d  mine  both  sides of the trail ...  they,d run up  to it  an run around  it ... BLAM! ... from then  on they went real slow ...  sometimes  the  rear  guard  would  lose  contact with the others ...  sometimes  we,d  get  scattered  in a fire  fight ...  we were always  a very small force ... 4...6....8...  etc .. i liked being  rear  guard ... i don,t know why .. i was  rear  guard  when  i ended  up on that  ladder !!!! ...  what is it with me ???.. i,m not a heroic .. may be  i have  a death wish ... but there  is nothing  ever  like  playing such a deadly game ...  when you come home  from that  and they  expect  you to  go back  to the  shoe  store ... no way !!! ...  the gooks  that  were  trying  to kill me   were wonderful soldiers.. the best ... they  were  professional and dedicated and very good ... . very organized and   disciplined.. and ruthless!!! they killed many of my  friends... we killed  each other for no reason ... i was watching  CNN  and it was showing some special  forces slogging  along  a trail with  a big pack  and  i  told  to my son  ' that,s  all water and ammo"... and the reporter asked  him  what  he was carrying and he said " water and   bullets" !!! .. of course  i,m  sure  he  had  other things  that he couldn,t say  . and  it,s reassuering that those boys are the same  still ..  but  it was so funny  ... and it was funny when  people said  we can,t fight in the winter over  there ... HA ! HA!...  we always  pray for bad weather .. rain .. wind... snow ..  anything that  makes the enemy seek shelter and anything that hides our  noise so we can  operate .. good weather  we sit tight ... bad weather we attack ...