Alfred Arteaga (May 3, 1950-July 4, 2008)

"The sorrow of war inside a soldier's heart was in a strange way similar to the sorrow of love. It was a kind of nostalgia, like the immense sadness of a world at dusk. It was a sadness, a missing, a pain which could send one soaring back into the past. The sorrow of the battlefield could not normally be pinpointed to one particular event, or even one person. If you are focused on any one event it would soon become a tearing pain."

~ Bao Ninh, THE SORROW OF WAR: A Novel of North Vietnam

He would have hated
Dying on the 4th. How sad
He'd say. And then he'd laugh.

His last words to me:

"We could drive home together. I'll tell you some lies."

Rest in color, mi companero.

Alfred Arteaga

May 3, 1950-July 4, 2008