How could such a small portion of a man's life affect him so much? What can happen to a man in only two years that could so profoundly reshape the entire rest of his life? Why can't a soldier just forget it and let it go? I did hold it in and kept it mostly out of mind for decades. I've asked myself those questions, and my friends have asked that of me too. I have no answer except to understand that for those few months, every moment was so intense and so emotionally filled that it somehow burns into a man so deep that it becomes like a scar on the inside, but not visible on the outside.