Chapter 1

My name is Daniel Bellagambas. They called me Lt. Dan while I was in the Marine Corps and it stuck when I got out. I was the first in my family to graduate college and the first officer in a long line of Marines. So Lt. Dan, that’s me.

I had spent 10 months walking around just south of the DMZ doing my job. You know, making widows and orphans and breaking things. The Marines call it ‘Search and Destroy’. The job of the infantry.

After 3 years I returned to the farm in Mississippi. My mom had died of breast cancer when I was in the eighth grade and my father had never re-married. Hell I don’t think he ever even dated. He just worked harder.

We have a nice place. Big modern house and lots of pasture for our 300 head of registered Angus cattle. We have a sale once a year and do pretty well. Well enough that he put me and my sister thru college. I joined the Marines just like him and his father before him. But I am hoping the tradition ends with me. These political wars now-a-days never end well and just make money for corrupt politicians. If I had been in charge I would have dropped a nuke on Hanoi. Sure there would have been worldwide outrage and protests. But 50,000 American boys would not have died and another half a million wounded. Right about now you are glad I was not in charge. Right?