My mother used to have the ability some time, to really see things beyond anyone’s full understanding. She always went with her feelings and seemed to have that certain gift for seeing things ahead of time. It must have been some kind of a genetic thing, since all of my family seemed to display varying degrees of ability over the years. But my mother made an impression with some of the guys I was stationed with in Nam, because of a letter she wrote to me in the spring of 1967.

In her letter, that she had written to me, she went in great details about two dreams she had about me in Vietnam. At first reading, one might dismiss them both as just an interesting imagination, but there was such a parallel to what had taken place that it was more than just a coincidence or a lucky guess. Let me explain the two dreams and how they both unfolded for me in real life.

DREAM #1: My mom talked about her first dream in very vivid details. She described seeing my helicopter flying along at tree top level. With me sitting behind my machine gun and firing it at the jungle below . She saw all the soldiers sitting nervously on the floor and the canvas seat of my aircraft. She went on to described the men and what they carried and what they looked like. She then went into detail about the LZ where we were going to land our Huey in. She pointed out that there was a fire along one side of the LZ. She saw tracers going from my ship to the tree line. She also saw tracers coming up towards the ship.

She then went on to tell how the men jumped out of the Huey, as it was touching down - not waiting for it to actually come to a full stop. She saw a young soldier who was carrying a machine gun jump out and run forward. He was followed by a guy carrying more ammo for the gun. She talked about the surrounding jungles and trees and small details that made her sound like she had been there and had actually saw all that she was talking about.

I put down her letter after reading this first dream experience. I realized that she had seen all that had happened on the very same day she wrote the letter. Except, that when it was day light in Nam, she was sleeping far off in California, some 9,000 miles away. Her details were so vivid and detailed about that day,

that I thought I was watching a instant replay of the events that had taken place. I showed the letter to some of the guys who had flown that mission with me and they all agreed – that it was just like an eye-witness account of the whole experience. It was as if she had been there with us on that combat assault.

DREAM #2: In describing her second dream, she stated that it was about something that had not taken place yet, but would happen. She firmly believed that it would take place . She realized that the whole dream was a rather strange one, but felt that all would happen just as she had described it in her letter to me. In this dream, she saw two soldiers standing out on a dirt street in a small Vietnamese village. They both appeared to be intoxicated and staggered around yelling insults at each other. They were standing about a 100 feet apart from each other. She went on to say that it looked like the opening credits for the old TV show "Gun Smoke". The scene she was referring to showed two gun fighters engaged in a gun fight on the streets of Dodge City.

Well in her dream, these two soldiers were facing off for a gun fight with each other. They both had pistols of some kind around their waist, from which they drew their weapons from. She said that they would fire at each other, but that no one would be hurt, They both would miss each other. She really felt for sure that all this would happen, but why she had this particular dream and what relationship it had to me, she did not fully understand. But she was passing it along to me as a fact.

I read that part of the letter to some of my buddies and received a good round of laughs about my mom’s prediction. So I told them, "if my mom says it will happen – then it will happen!" I then challenged them to go with me to the village that afternoon and witness it for themselves. I strongly trusted my inner feelings and my mom’s belief that it would take place. I wanted them along to witness the unfolding of events that were sure to take place that afternoon. A few of them wanted to go just to be there when I was proven wrong and it would also be good for another laugh if nothing else happened.

We got a ride to the village in truck and went to the local bar to have a few beers. I decided to sit at an outdoor table so I would not miss any of the action that would take place. After several hours of drinking and waiting, these guys started kidding me and teasing me about my mom and the letter. I stood firm and said that it would happen. I had no doubts about it. We were just about ready to leave back for the base camp, when we heard a couple of gun shots. At this time, we had gone back inside the bar to get a last beer, so we had missed the build up to what happened. As soon as we heard the gun shots we all ran outside, while everyone else in town, was running inside for cover. However, by the time we had gotten outside to look, it was all over. We were told that it was only two drunken soldiers shooting at each other and now it was all over. No one was killed or hurt.

My friends stood there frozen quiet and unable to say a word. They looked at me in disbelief at what had happened. We all got back on the truck and headed back to base camp. The guys were all spooked and did not want to talk about it again. The ride back was deathly quiet. No one spoke a word to me.

I will never understand why it all happened as my mother predicted, but I do accept it as reality and fact. It did happen and my mom knew it would.