Lancaster native Jeff Butch served in Vietnam with the Marines. That’s where he learned the key to survival was to deal with things as they happened, and not to make plans.
“We never thought about the past because the past already was over. We just thought about the present. I’m here now what am I going to do. We didn’t think about the future because, the future may never come. That next bullet may have your name on it, That next grenade may have your name on it. We lived every day as if it was your last day.”
“I’m right here and now. I’m living for the moment. And that’s what you did. And that’s the only thing that kept us going.”
“When I first got to Vietnam I thought I was fighting the war for the right reasons. You know America was right we should stop communism. We should stop the domino effect. We don’t want all of Southeast Asia to fall. The longer I was there the longer I saw what was going on I thought, you know, why are we here? So so instead of fighting you for the United States we start fighting for ourselves to make sure that we would all make it back alive to our families and our friends and our loved ones, not that we resented the United States for the war but we just felt you know we’re not here to win.”