A while back I read some things by a girl who is 21, she was lamenting her life, Today I read about a soldier from Cedar City, Utah who died in Iraq. and after doing so, I paused to consider what I see as the meaning of a life and consider once again its brevity.  I remembered vividly a dear friend of mine, a neighbor right out of the wonder years, who lived just across the street from me.  I was 14 he was twenty…my mother and his mother were close close friends.  We vacationed together when I was 11 and he was 17, when I was 12 and he was 18, when I was 13 and he was 19….so the news that he was drafted put us all on edge. In August he left, he was home from Viet Nam in October…his picture on top of his casket.  The day my mom came in the house and told me that he had been killed, her complexion was gray, she was just sick to her stomach, we both cried.  He was always so good to me even when the other older kids treated me like the little kid I was. He would take me to the Polar King for a drink…and say “hot damn” as he jumped in his mom’s blue Comet with the keys and a couple bucks for the treat. He won a bet with me that he could cut a tree down faster with a knife than I could with my new boy scout hatchet…he won…I still have his three foot machete that his mother gave to me. I treasure it.

He died from hostile fire in a tiny little hamlet surrounded by rice paddies, after a five hour daylight  firefight,… to me, a senseless death. His parents were never the same, nor were we. Our innocence of the sixties died with him. I have read his name on every black wall dedicated to the dead of war that I come across, and I occasionally look up the maps of the camp and topography where he arrived, just two months before his last patrol.  And as I look at them I wish I could talk to him, ask him if it was hot and humid, and if he was afraid, or if he  thot of home as often as I thot of him.  Tonight I found his military records on a military site, and I was reminded again that for some,  twenty years old….. is a lifetime…

Last name: FERGUSON
First name: AARON FLOYD
Home of Record (official): PROVO
State (official): UT
Date of Birth: Monday, April 26, 1948
Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian
Marital Status: Single

— Military —

Branch: Army
Rank: PFC
Serial Number: 56649833
Component: Selective Service
Pay grade: E3
MOS (Military Occupational Specialty code): 11B40
Major Organization: 25th Inf Div

— Action —

Start of Tour: Friday, August 9, 1968
Date of Casualty: Monday, October 7, 1968
Age at time of loss: 20
Casualty type: (A1) Hostile, died
Reason: Gun, small arms fire (Ground casualty)
Country: South VietNam
Province: Hoa Nghia