Brian Delate (BD) and Tirsa Delate (TD)
BD: Remember when you were asking me, uh, ‘Hey dad were you in a war?’
TD: Yeah.
BD: I was in the war in Vietnam in 1969 and, um, it was very hard. I was either bored or terrified when I was over there. But I feel very fortunate that I have some of the best friends ever. And um my friend, Don, he and I went to high school together. We both were getting drafted at the same time. We went in on the same day and we went through basic training together. Guess I was gung-ho, kind of, but Don was sort of a hippie with a short haircut. And when we were in basic training he just wanted to get through it and one drill sergeant was really mean and he used to get in our faces and say, ‘Hey man, don’t you mess with me,’ or words to that effect. And if I was getting really serious, Don would come up to me and he’d elbow me a little bit and say, ‘Hey man don’t you mess with me,’ until I’d start laughing. And then I’d say, ‘Hey, don’t you mess with me.’ And we’d laugh and we’d laugh.
TD: When you got out of war how did it change you?
BD: When I came back I was really, I think very angry. And my friend, Don, he was very depressed. I went to college and I talked him into going to and he went for a couple of weeks and he just couldn’t do it. Not long after that, he had a job driving a forklift and he got killed driving the forklift. A few months after that, I had a dream that I was floating in space and I could see my friend Don, he was floating in space to. And as he got closer he started laughing and he said, ‘Hey man, don’t mess with me.’
TD: Laughing
TD: I said, ‘Hey man, don’t you mess with me.’ And we laughed and we laughed and then I said to him. ‘Are you okay?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ And then he said to me, ‘How are you?’ And I said, ‘I’m, I’m okay.’ and we smiled and he went off and I went off. I think that was our way of saying goodbye, in a dream. He was a special guy, good friend.