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I hadn't thought about those bastards for a while.

I really had wanted just to put the whole thing out of my mind.

Forgetting about it would be my salvation.

Knowing what I knew... seeing what I'd seen... it changed the way I looked at life.

I knew it was all so much more bullshit than anyone would ever have believed.

The whole sordid episode was so far in the back of my head along with all of the other bullshit that surrounded the scandal that I was actually starting to see the world as a better place again.

That felt good.

When the phone rang I noticed it was my mother on the caller I.D.

I hadn't even got a 'hello' out when I hear her say 'have you heard the news?'

It's been a while since I've paid attention to the news... it all seems bad lately... it kinda bums me out...

'No... I haven't heard the news' I said... pretty much expecting to hear about some fresh tragedy or other.

'They indicted them... just now... the feds charged them... it was on the radio.'

'Aw fuck' I thought.

I was supposed to get some kind of advance warning... a couple of hours at least... maybe enough to arrange a quick little 'vacation' to an 'unknown location.'

I wasn't ready to deal with the media.

Those dudes are sharks man.

You ever find yourself in the middle of a history making scandal and you'll see just how they behave.

The thing was... I knew what a lot of the media didn't know...

There was a lot more 'history' to be made.

I knew because I'd already written it.

I knew that they hadn't come close to exposing the enormity of the story even though I'd given them everything.

I knew there was a lot more for them to figure out.

I was actually hoping my name was long forgotten.

Not a chance.

That's like hoping that the IRS will forget that you owe them money.

None of the stories in the 'first wave' mentioned me... and that was a little bit of a relief.

I knew though... I knew how it worked now... I knew it'd only be a matter of time before the initial story petered out and the media would be there digging deeper.

It was only a matter of time.

All I could hope for was that the 'second wave' of stories died down... that would show me that the 'media cycle' was waning.

If the next days stories dug deeper... my life was gonna get difficult really fast.

I wasn't ready for this.

It had been almost three years since I blew the whistle.

And even then... it took me a couple of months of effort to convince the feds that it was really happening.

I had no idea back then how this stuff worked.

I mean... where do you find the number for the guy you gotta talk to when the government is killing hundreds... maybe thousands of people?

It ain't in the phonebook... I can tell you that.

Three years of nothing but silence from the feds...

three years of putting my life and my family's life back together...

and they hand up the indictments without even telling me they were coming.

Those guys were as tight as a drum... I mean absolutely tight... there was never a leak out of the US Attorney's office.

Not one.

Man... the shit was about to hit the fan and I didn't even have half a chance to duck it.

My nerves calmed down a little bit after I'd read the news on the computer...

There were almost two hundred stories on the wire in newspapers around the country after only a few hours.

It was amazing how the media could be such sharks on one hand and then not ask the most obvious and deserved questions on the other hand.

Nobody ever asked what the two officials who were indicted had to gain from doing it.

That's the first freakin' question that I would ask.

Sometimes I forget that it's a tough case to understand.

I forget that I know what's happened because I figured it out three years ago.

These people murdered innocent people.

Lots of them.

And no one talks about all the babies that died... all of the miscarriages and spontaneous abortions...

Nobody except the women in that town... and even they only talk about it in whispers.

I don't know how much of the truth I know... but I know that what I know 'is the truth.'

And I know that the government that's supposed to protect us and our families...

they don't seem too interested in the truth.

I had a sneaking suspicion that they'd throw the heads of a couple of low level officials on a platter to show the masses that they gave a flying fuck about them...

but It was pretty obvious to me that the feds weren't interested in 'the truth.'

That's because 'the truth' would shock a whole bunch of people... it'd get the very masses they were trying to appease all riled up.

That's why I wrote 'the truth' down a long time ago...

I made copies of it and gave it to the right people.

I blew that whistle three years ago because I had proof of what they were doing.

And it took me a long time... way too long... to convince the government that they should do something about it.

I knew it was murder from the moment I figured it all out.

COLD

BLOODED

MURDER.

This guy is my uncle. He joined the Navy in 1945 to fight in World War II. Poor bastard. We dropped a couple atom bombs on Japan before he could see action. Peace treaties are a bitch.

Luckily, we never run out of wars.

A few years later, he re-upped to serve in Korea. He loved the Navy. But he never talked about fighting or killing. Instead, he told stories about all the places he saw. As a kid, I figured going to war was like going on vacation with a gun.

He stayed in the Navy for a while. But first came a baby daughter. Then a boy. His civilian wife who wanted a civilian life dry docked him.

Still, he stayed in the reserves to travel to places like Spain and Japan. In the early 1970s, he worked in Iran, teaching the shah's pilots how to fly jets. He got out just before all hell broke loose.

Back home again, he drove trucks. Worked on supermarket loading docks. And took just about any job he could.

That's the way it is for most vets. They return to the states and blend into the crowd. At least the lucky ones do.

Today, more soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are missing arms or legs. They come home to family and friends brain damaged from shrapnel and bullet wounds to their heads. And nearly all of them suffer emotional injuries that they won't or can't show to the rest of the world. But they can't hide. Even though most of us try not to look too long or hard at them.

During the past five years, more than 27,000 Americans have suffered war wounds that will never heal. Injuries that will leave them physically and emotionally crippled for the rest of their days on this planet.

So many are young men and women who will never drive a car again. They won't be able to dress themselves each morning. And they will never hold their babies in their arms.

And the very best we can do is say "Thank you."

You give a waiter or waitress more than that for serving you a plate of soggy spaghetti at Pizza Hut.