by Stan Scislowski No civilian can expect to know the deep feelings that can well up in a war veteran when he visits the site of his greatest trial and efforts in the war. Those who have never heard the unholy din of battle, smelled the dead or inhaled the stifling smoke and fumes of a shell that fell much too close for comfort cannot come close to understanding the feeling that touches those of us who have known these things and more. It is almost as though we veterans still cannot believe we had come through it all. How can anyone expect his wife, children, grandc...

by Dan Danyluk It was April 1961. Two miles south of the airport, heading into Albertville in what was then known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My driver pointed left, slowed the jeep, and spoke: "Yesterday. That's where they killed and ate the Irish patrol." "All 13?" I asked, confirming the news I had heard earlier in the capital city of Leopoldville. "Yup! Hacked them up with pangas--you know, machetes. Guess they were hungry--those Balubas." The driver's casual reasoning startled me. But being exhausted, I said nothing. Instead, my tired mind retraced the events...

by Major John Egan The author pauses during a live-fire exercise near the Songo River in Sierra Leone in 2001. The Hercules dove to within 200 feet of the Atlantic as it came up on the coast of Sierra Leone. Tilting left, then right to avoid potential missile or gunfire, the aircraft was not far above the water when it lifted up slightly to pass over two fishing boats and a small freighter. To the south, I could see the capital of Freetown, our home base for the next six months. After crossing over a beach, the big plane cleared a palm forest b...