Some night they didn’t know
where they were and didn’t care,
prayed the gunships
would find an ambush patrol
caught between the Cambodian Border
and the city of Tay Ninh .
When it was over and daylight came,
they got purple hearts
for their trouble, saluted
colonels and brigadiers
pinning silver
on each other’s chests,
bragging how tough it was,
how brilliant they were,
hovering at a thousand feet.