Welcome to Let It Be Easy with Susie Moore.

The story I'm about to share with you from Ticknot Hans book at Home in the World

to me is incredibly moving.

I almost, no, I did put the book down after reading this one and just needed to sit with it,

let it sink in, take a little walk and frankly appreciate the depth of this story.

Okay?

It's called practice is a boat. I met a Vietnam war veteran who had killed five

innocent Vietnamese children during the war and who could not forgive himself for having done so.

His unit had been caught in an ambush and many of his friends had been killed. Only he and a few others survived. He was furious. To retaliate, he set up a trap in the village where his friends had been killed. He made sandwiches with meat and other things, put explosives between the pieces of bread, and left them near the entrance of the village.

Then he hid himself to observe. Soon some children came out, discovered the sandwiches and

began to eat them. As he watched, the children began to cry and suffer terribly. Their parents rushed out of despair. They wanted to call

an ambulance, but it was a very remote place and it was impossible. The soldier knew that even

if there had been an ambulance, it would be too late to save the children. He watched the children

die in agony in their parents' arms.

Ever since he returned to the United States, he couldn't sleep.

If he was ever in a room alone with children, it was unbearable, and he would rush out

as quickly as possible.

He could not talk about it to anyone except his mother, who could not hear it.

She said,

My dear son, that's the nature of war.

Such things happen in war.

Do not blame yourself too harshly.

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