Lord willing, this coming week, my dad and one of my brothers will be flying from Tucson, Arizona to Indiana.

While there, they will be killing two birds with one stone.

One bird is, the UPCI General Conference. UPCI stands for United Pentecostal Church International.

The other bird is my dad will be meeting up with some of his Vietnam buddies.

Ever since dad found out that the UPCI General Conference was going to be in Indiana in 2023, he talked about doing that and getting to see his Vietnam buddy who is affectionately called, Moose.

Dad’s kids got together to make Indiana a reality and I have taken it upon myself to refer to this mission as: OPERATION MOOSE.

With OPERATION MOOSE close at hand, I decided to share a Vietnam related story my dad has told that is a favorite of mine.

If it sounds familiar to you, perhaps you read about it the first time I posted it on Facebook.

But now, for the first time, I am releasing it to the universe through this thing they call, www.

The 8-Track… The year was 1971 and my dad was back home from Vietnam. He was 20 years old and had just completed a 12-month tour there. On his to do list, was to visit my great-grandparents (his maternal grandparents) in Bakersfield, California. So, come Labor Day weekend, both my parents and Uncle Benny (dad’s brother) all loaded up in my uncle’s Volkswagen Bug and headed there. It was late at night, and they were in an area in California known as the Grapevine when my dad fell asleep at the wheel. That is when the 8-track that was playing switched tracks and the noise it made according to my dad sounded like an M16 being loaded which caused my dad to jerk awake…My dad told me that when they got to Bakersfield he could not sleep. He lay awake feeling scared about what had happened and what could have happened. I imagine all the what ifs going through his mind beginning with what if the 8-track was not at a place in time where it was ready to switch tracks but then I stop myself because I know. I know the answer to this. I found it years ago while reading about another war, World War ll in Europe. The Ten Boom family lived in the Netherlands. They were a Christian family, and they were heavily involved with the resistance there. One night, when Corrie couldn’t sleep and she heard her sister, Betsie in the kitchen, she decided to join her. Betsie was making tea. For around an hour, they drank their tea and talked through the noise of explosions going on around them. When all was quiet again, the sisters said goodnight to each other and headed to their own bedrooms. As Corrie was feeling for her bed, she cut her finger on something hard that was on her pillow. It was a piece of shrapnel ten inches long. She ran back down the stairs to show Betsie and they both stared at it in wonder. ” Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen- ” But Betsie put a finger on my mouth. ” Don’t say it, Corrie! There are no ifs in God’s world! And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety-Oh Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it! “

* Quote taken from the book, The Hiding Place.

~missy salcido wead