Goodnight, Irene.

On October 19, 1971, Tropical Storm Hester developed and crossed the Southern Philippines. Upon moving northwest through the South China Sea, Typhoon Hester strengthened reaching a peak of 100 mph winds just before slamming into central Vietnam on the 23rd. I was a young Army officer living in Hoi An, just south of Da Nang. Trained to be an advisor to local and regional Vietnamese forces, I was inexperienced and barely able to deal with the trauma occurring all around me every day, much less mounting a rescue effort for fickle civilians who on most days would switch sides depending on who appeared to be stronger...or weaker. It was not that they had no loyalties, but it was a matter of survival. I had a 2-1/2 ton truck, so I was the stronger force at that instant. Of the hundreds of people we moved out of harms way in multiple trips on a flooded road, often while watching their homes vanish into the river, I will never know how many of them had been shooting at me the day before.

I sometimes think about times that my life nearly ended. I do not talk about war and I think that most people who do have thrilling accounts to tell are at least partially lying and mostly very egotistical. Possibly one of the most satisfying experiences of my life and also one where I honestly did not expect to see tomorrow was in this rescue mission. The fear was not that some of my passengers, stacked like cordwood on the back of the truck, were really Viet Cong terrorists in the wrong place at the wrong time. While scary, the fear of the truck missing the track of the flooded road and washing everyone down the river was also not my main concern. I worried that we would fail. For an instant, there was no war and everyone on both sides of this man-made conflict were pulling together to survive nature's worst. If we failed in this, how could there be hope for anything.

I prayed. God answered. We survived.

I can hear the rain picking up outside my house as I write this because Hurricane Irene is approaching Connecticut. While it will only be a fraction of the size of Hester, I feel both threatened and safe at the same time. I have no reason to leave the safety of my home, but memories of past winds will be blowing through my mind tonight. I will not sleep. How many lives will be changed by this storm as my perfect storm changed me? Is there any chance that we will learn the lesson of peace and friendship from another natural weather event? It doesn't seem to have made much difference in the past.

I will pray. God will answer. We will survive.