Twice Bitten

Incredible fear heightens all emotions; lust, love, rage, sympathy and the need for human companionship. Severe anxiety is the manifestation of those strong emotions. When you fear for your life, all emotions are exaggerated. Life itself becomes more meaningful, and every second becomes much more precious. Lust is more exaggerated; love is felt more deeply, rage is much more uncontrollable, sympathy is more heart felt, and the need to be with people who love you is much greater. Fear is the greatest friend and the greatest foe of all human beings. Harnessed fear and anxiety provides the adrenalin the body and mind need to stand and fight or flee to fight another day. Unbridled anxiety turns the body into a cowering heap of chemical compounds balled up in the fetal position. One must experience true and prolonged fear to really understand its consequences.
Being in Camp Parker, out in the middle of nowhere, with only twelve Americans to control an Army of over six hundred men, and provide them and their families with all the necessities of life and the necessities of an effective armed force was a daunting task in itself. Enduring horrendous ambushes to get the food and supplies that were vital, made us dread convoys to town like the plague. Having to defend ourselves against a committed and relentless enemy, a large number of which was in our own midst, scared us to death. Nightly attacks that rained down on us like meteorites in the middle of the night, eventually wore us down because there was no escape. The fear was there every second of every day, and the days were long and the nights even longer. I accepted that I would die in that hell hole until I fell in love and adopted a small family; then I felt fear I could never have imagined.
Death is what we fear most until we have something more dear to us than life to lose.