General Discussion

I was too young.

I became casual friends with a Vietnam vet in Florida. His father bought him a Corvette as a present for surviving the war.
He lived in a crawl space in a stairwell of a motel. He worked at the motel cleaning the pool/maintenance.
I feel he was disturbed from his experience and largely detached from family and society.
I knew from my other family members who served that you don't pry very hard into those areas as vets in my family did not like to discuss it.
I guess I just functioned as non threatening company - easy companionship
I found him interesting and kind of exciting - he seemed so carefree in some ways and yet emotionally wounded and withdrawn/guarded in other ways.
Once, he took me out to Daytona beach in the wee hours. I can't be sure but I think he got his car up to 168mph. It was rattling so much, I thought the car was going to fly apart. The speedometer was hard to read. Turns out that beach isn't as flat as you think.
One day, not long after, he was gone without saying a word.
He left me with some good memories. I think he had a very tough experience. I hope life worked out for him.

I still feel the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the saddest place I have visited in the country.