What Is It That Binds Combat Veterans Together?

Author Unknown

It isn't friendship. We all have friends we can go to a company picnic or a convention with and you'll not feel the same emotion in the air as when you attend a veteran's reunion.

It is something beyond regular friendship. It is the knowing that "you and they have been to hell and back". It is a deep rooted emotion that binds you together. It is the knowledge that when things were tough, you and your buddies stuck it out and lived through it. You can attend high school reunions, college reunions, company conventions....the whole civilian works, but there isn't the "band of brothers" feeling that is felt when combat buddies get together!

You and your buddies may have less hair on top and a lot more inches around the beltline, but deep within all of you is the same comradeship that you had during those horrible days of war. Whether it is 10 years or 40 years, when combat buddies meet, it seems like yesterday! All of the memories begin to assemble in your mind...memories that you thought had been pushed back into the recesses of your memory bank. "Whatever happened to..." and "Remember when...", you try not to let on that these old veterans mean a lot to you, but by the time Auld Lang Syne is played and the flags furled, and the station wagon is packed, there is a lump in your throat, and a tear in your eye, as you part with the men that once lived and fought beside you. You tell your wife: "Damn, it was good to see them again." And it was! "Old Charley" may have gained 50 pounds, but he sure could fire that machine gun. "Chief" looked almost as young and fit as he did when he crawled up and gave you first aid under fire. "Danny Boy" is now almost bald, but he was quite a Sergeant in those days, and "Jimmy" gets around pretty good with one glass eye, and one arm.

Yes, memories flood your mind as you head for home. No one knows the feeling except those of us who were there. You wonder if you will ever see any of them again. Combat was hell and you have many terrible memories of death and destruction, but the memory of total camaraderie with men who shared that hell, will be forever embedded in your heart. There is no friendship like that of combat buddies. It is something that lasts forever.

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