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We turn now to a US soldier from another world, Brian Delate, fought in Vietnam. When his teenage daughter had some questions about his service during that war, his answers were recorded by Storycorps. This project has been recording every day American's talking about their lives. Brian Delate spoke with his daughter Tirsa in New York.

Remember when you are asking me, "hey dad, were you in a war?"
"Yeah!"
I was in the war in Vietnam in 1969 and it was very hard. I was either bored or terrified when I was over there. But I feel very fortunate I had some of the best friends ever. My friend Don, he and I went to high school together. We both were getting drafted at the same time, when we went in the same day. And we went through basic training together.

Guess I was gung-ho kind of but Don was sort of a hippy with a short haircut. And when we were in a basic training, he just wanted to get through it. One drill sergeant was really mean and he used to get in our faces and say, "Hey man, don't you mess with me?", words that fact. If I would get really serious, Don would come up to me, he // "Hey man, don't you mess with me." And until I would start laughing, and I'd say 'don't you mess with me,' and we'd laugh and we'd laugh.

We got out of the war, how do they change you?

When I came back, I was really, I think was very angry, and my friend Don, he was very depressed. He went to college and I talked him what I am going to. And he went for a couple of weeks. And he just couldn't do it.

Not long after that he had a job, driving a forklift and he got killed driving the forklift. A few months after that, I had a dream that I was floating in a space and he can see my friend Don he was floating in the space too. As we got closer, he started laughing at me, and he said "Hey man don't mess with me." I said, hey man, don't you mess with me. And we laughed and we laughed, then I said to him, "are you ok?" And he say "yeah. I am good." And then he said to me, said "how are you?" I said "I'm, I'm ok." And we smiled, and he went off, I went off. I think that was our way of saying goodbye in a dream. He was a special guy, a good friend.

Brian Delate and his daughter Tirsa. It's StoryCorps in New York City. All of these interviews are archived in the library of Congress. You can subscribe to the StoryCorps Podcast at npr.org.

wonderful  listening 

don't you mess with me是什么意思？

mess with
同...一起用膳
胡乱摆弄
搞糟
干扰
与...厮混在一起
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