Valor "V" on Pinstripes — STEVEN HARDESTY

Not every war veteran wore the uniform but they all carry the combat scars just as long. The death of an old friend who was a civilian in the Vietnam war reminded me of that. He deserved a valor "V" on his pinstripe suit.

Didn't wear wear that suit in the war zone, of course. He wore a "safari suit," popular among adventurers everywhere and US State Department employees like him in Indochina. Because of all those working pockets and the hot weather coolness. Looked a lot like army jungle fatigues but differently colored to prevent being sniped for an armed combatant.

Because he wasn't that. He worked a project to help boost local agriculture and went everywhere unarmed. Because that is what civilians did in that earlier stage in the war. Had we met then in the field rather than a few years later, I would've called him nuts.

Eventually and after a lot of hard work, his project began to show some success and to raise the US in the estimation of the Vietnamese farmers with whom he worked. But that was something the Vietcong enemy could not allow. Too much of American good works might turn people against the VC who only offered the farmers guns, extortion and the chance to be caught in war's crossfire.

So the VC put a price on his head. The State Department assigned him a pair of Vietnamese bodyguards.

The bodyguards neutralized the VC bounty and kept him safe. Until the VC offered them enough money to kill him themselves. But the bodyguards had come to respect his courage and to value his farm work. They took the VC money but refused to kill him. They'd cripple him instead with a beating, get him sent Stateside, and no more.

The bodyguards didn't actually give the VC all they had promised because he survived the beating (just barely) uncrippled. But with scars he carried the rest of his life.

And, when the hospital released him, he went back to the work. Without the bodyguards but with a .45 on his hip.

Not every warrior wears a uniform. Not everyone goes into the war zone to fight the killing war. But all who stand up in the dragon’s breath in defense of country and refuse to run deserve more than a rote “Thank you for your service!” with a pat on the back. They deserve our respect. Every hour of each day. Even those who wore the civilian uniform.