In going through some old papers, records, etc. of my father who is now 82 years old and living in an assisted care facility I came across a letter he wrote to me in 1966 while stationed with the AF in Guam flying missions over Viet Nam. My father was a lifetime career officer having gone into the Army-AirCorps in 1941. He served his time during WWII in China with the Flying Tigers. I would like to share his thoughts on war which he wrote in this letter.
..."Life over here is a rat-race as all wars are. It's too bad that we now fight wars without arousing the well being of the American people. I'm sure, if the entire USA were behind this war 100%, we could get it over with much sooner and go back to a more peaceful life. But how frustrating it all is!

I think I've found what I hate about war. It's not thinking of life and death or getting out alive. I don't dare to think that deeply (after all ol'Fighter pilots are not supposed to think deeply!) It's the thought of all the TIME one has wasted ~ wast3d and is not recoverable. TIME with what you want to do the most. Every second becomes very important~ becausde it is gone, right now, and you are ages older with each second gone. The focal point on time is magnified out of proportion with all normal concepts we normally know. A moment in combat is an eternity of emotional exhaustion. I feel older than this world because of those moments. I'm drained ~ too old for the present. TIME that I wanted is irreivocably gone. I've fought and shot and killed in so many battles, hoping that my loved ones will never have to go through this. But somehow history refutes this. Is this a farcial world we live in? Hey, kiddo, I better quit this philosophical study of the crazy thing we call life in this day and age."....thoughts from an old Fighter Pilot, James West Hitchcock, Lt Col. USAFA