IMAGES OF WAR

The images that had been, so long, locked within his mind, stared back at him from the canvas. He thought there was no way to express the things that he had seen, but there they were. Scenes that had been a part of his memory for 36 years were now laying in front of him in vibrant color. Who was it that could have painted what he thought nobody else could see? Who was it that could have looked within his mind, and with paint brush created a picture of the things he was unable to share with anyone. Scenes that remained as flashbacks to the hellish days of war that could not be forgotten; scenes that drifted in and out of memory in the nightmares that he could not escape; scenes that returned with a vengeance, every year, on the anniversary of his being wounded.

Somehow looking at the pictures he found comfort in knowing that he was not alone. His memories were not only his, but shared with another brother whom he had never met. Their footprints were both on that foreign soil. Not in the same places and not at the same time and yet they shared the same memories.

One soldier had returned home with wounds that would forever change his life. The other, a medic, was only beginning to see the scenes that had returned home with the wounded soldier...scenes that would forever change his life.

Their paths never crossed until that day in 2004, in Washington, D.C., when in front of the wounded soldier, the contents of his mind were on display. His wounds were evident and yet here lay the wounds of the medic who painted them - wounds that nobody could ever see; wounds of the soul and mind; wounds that they both shared from that long ago time.

Bernie Duff had somehow released the demons that many thought nobody could see. He used the talent that God had blessed him with to paint the scenes that the world had not witnessed but needed to see. He had painted the scenes that many soldiers thought there was no way to share with anyone. Seeing them, laying there upon the canvass, Dennis Haines realized that he was not alone anymore than Bernie Duff was alone. They were brothers, bonded together by the hellish memories that they both would have rather forgotten; bonded together as soldiers that stood together in the same war, even if it was different years and different parts of Viet Nam. Bonded together forever...now embracing on America's soil... bonded through their memories that were no longer theirs alone but shared because of God's grace upon Bernie Duff in giving him the gift to paint what nobody wanted to remember but could never forget.

Bernie Duff painted the scenes that were etched within thousands of soldier's minds - scenes that they could not share with their wives, scenes that they could not speak of with anyone. He painted what every spouse of a Viet Nam Vet wanted to understand but couldn't. He painted the scenes that told why so many could not bring their minds completely home. He painted the scenes that many wives wished they had never had to look at but knew they needed to see... to understand a little better. He painted the scenes that God gave him the talent to paint. He painted the scenes that he wished he would never have had to look at - the one's that he would never forget... the one's the world needed to see. He was a medic in Viet Nam...a healer. He is still a healer today.

©Copyright December 13, 2004 by Mary E. Rogers