No One's Thanked Him Right

A naive boy barely eighteen,
was sent to war in Vietnam.
A sheep deployed among wolves,
he had to prove he's a man.

Expected to kill or die,
he made a point of being brave.
Yet exposed to war's carnage,
he cringed in shell dug graves.

Forced to take another's life,
he numbed his hurt with cocain.
And closed his ears to the screams,
just to keep from going insane.

Having survived this nightmare,
he was sent home with his pain.
And the reception he got,
made him hurt all over again.

At times people spat on him,
there was no hero's parade.
Ashamed of his uniform,
he felt betrayed and afraid.

Forty years later he's still scared,
when terror visits him at night.
He's paid a terrible price,
and yet no one's thanked him right.