Bruce A. Bastien > Quotes

“Sometimes shit happens and you are the one standing in it. It’s happenstance. How we react to that shit is what is important. It determines if you get to go home. If you do go home, it determines what you will think about, at least subconsciously or in your dreams, for the rest of your life. It never leaves you entirely. It resides within, sometimes festering deep down, sometimes just below the surface. And if or when it ever does surface again, it will be triggered by some random event bringing back the memories all of a sudden, like a freight train barreling out of a tunnel. So we did what we needed to do, what was needed at the time, in order to survive. There really was no other choice.”
― Bruce A. Bastien, 13 Months: In the Bush, in Vietnam, in 1968