"She said, 'I bet I know

what movie you are here to see,' and I told her and she said, 'I was right.'

And I asked how did she know

and said she'd read a review in the paper that day about the movie and

how theaters could expect an influx of pot-bellied old men and sure enough

there had been a stream of potbellied old men all afternoon buying tickets

to see "We Were Soldiers."

The movie is based on "We

Were Soldiers Once ... and Young" by West Point grad, Vietnam vet,

Georgia native, and retired general Harold Moore.

I couldn't tell just what my

husband was thinking about the remarks from the woman in the window. I

knew I was thinking that 56 is not old (especially since I'm not too far

behind him) and that my husband is not pot-bellied. Nevertheless her remarks

laid the groundwork for some humor we created for ourselves as the evening

wore on.

God knows we (I) needed something

to laugh at. "We Were Soldiers" was not funny. It was far too

realistic. The film stirred within me a wide range of emotions and humor

was no where near the top ten, though I did laugh once.

I think I was the only person

in the theater who laughed at a line tossed by Sam Elliott's character

to a battlefield survivor. Elliott, Mel Gibson and others delivered stellar

performances in their roles.

I made up for my laughter though,

because at the end of the film, I was crying harder than anybody in the

building.

I was crying because we never

honored them when they needed us. Sure, we built a wall later. And we

all talk about it. We refer to it with too much ease anytime we want to

try to soothe our consciences.

So what if it was never a "real

war?" What if Washington and most of the country could not even agree

whether we should even be over there.

Damn it, we were there. Our

men and boys were there. Whether we were all in agreement or not they

were there, representing us. And more than 50,000 died. And many of those

who did not die came