DUTY, HONOR and ADVENTURE

When the Air Force sent me to Korea, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that it would be a new adventure, and that sounded good to me!

One afternoon, I was digging a new foxhole when I noticed a little Korean boy down the hill from me playing some game in the sand that really had him occupied. Here I was digging a hole that might save my life, and there was a little boy playing as thought there wasn’t a war going on. When the first bomb fell, Skoshi, the little terrified boy, ran up and jumped into my foxhole. He wrapped his arms around me and cried as only a very frightened boy can cry. By evening, Skoshi had a cot in the tent next to mine, and that was the beginning of a positive relationship.

Six months later, I was being transferred to a different part of Korea. As I was getting ready to board a bus to take me to the airport, Skoshi stopped me. “Remember my favorite church song, ‘Amazing Grace’?” I nodded. “My favorite verse in that song says, ‘Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. It was grace that brought me safe so far, and grace will lead me home’ . . . to you in the States.” He walked over, hugged me, started to cry, and turned and ran away as fast as he could.

But was that the end of our relationship?