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The Other Casualty Of War
by
Paul Bylin
Foreword
I wanted to write this small biography about myself for many reasons. Bringing attention to myself is not what this is about. We hear about the Vietnam vet who lived in the bush, and the ones that were involved in search & destroy missions and the tunnel rats, the grunts. They all are true American heroes, each and every one of them!
I wanted to show that the Vietnam War also had a deep impact on those that had duties other than to (specifically) kill. Although, being with the Engineers in Vietnam, that did not exclude us from doing just that. Nor did it exclude us from dying.
I had too many friends that were killed in Vietnam.
Each and every man and woman that came home from Vietnam, had their lives changed forever... my story is only one of them.
If not for the
love of my wife, and my daughter, only God knows
where I'd be today! They were right by my side
through some pretty turbulent times. To them, the
more than 58,000 American Heroes whose names appear
on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington
D.C., and each and every Vietnam vet, I dedicate my
story.
SP/4 Paul Bylin
Alpha Company
84th Engineer Battalion
1968 Binh Dinh Province
1969 Phu Yen Province
In Memory of:
RJ Smith - KIA 14 May 1969 - Binh Dinh Province,
South Vietnam
Jerry Greene – KIA 26 November 1969 - Phu Yen
Province, South Vietnam
Peter Pennucci – KIA 20 May 1970 – Quang Tin
Province, South Vietnam
(You guys will forever be in my heart.)
"The first casualty of war is innocence."
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