New Ending – Capture of NVA Soldier
For many years afterward, I questioned the decision I made that day. I knew I could have shot him, probably wounded him, and taken him back as a prisoner. For a long time, I thought that was what I should have done.
Time has changed the way I look at it.
He was not threatening us when he crossed that road. He was simply a soldier trying to get somewhere without being seen. When he realized we had spotted him, he must have known that his life could end right there. I sometimes wonder what went through his mind during those few seconds. Perhaps, like most young men facing death, he thought about home and his family.
I don’t know what happened to him after that day. I don’t know whether he survived the war or ever made it home. I hope he did.
The outcome of that war certainly did not depend upon whether I captured one North Vietnamese soldier along a road. Looking back now, I am glad that I let him go.
Over the years, I have sometimes wondered whether he remembered that day too. Did he ever tell his family how close he had come to being killed or captured? Did he ever wonder why the American officer who had him in his sights allowed him to disappear back into the countryside?
I will never know.
What I do know is that more than half a century has changed my understanding of a decision that took only a few seconds to make. At the time, I simply decided not to pull the trigger. Today, I am grateful that I didn’t.