Turning our Backs

March 1st, 2025

I have a neighbor who lives down the street from me. I see him every once in a while, although not so much now seeing as it’s winter and it’s cold outside. I used to take walks with my grandson, Asher, in the warmer weather and we would see Rob puttering around in his garage. I never could tell what exactly he was doing. He’s an older gentleman and I think he might be a little deaf because he always had talk radio blaring while he worked. He would have his back turned to the street, puffing on a cigar, oblivious to the world outside of his workshop. I would call out to him. Sometimes, he heard me and turned around to wave at us. Once in a great while, he stopped whatever he was doing, and we’d talk for a bit.

Rob has Marine Corps stickers on the back of one of his cars. He also has stickers showing that he’s a Vietnam vet. Sometimes, we would talk about the military. Rob’s stories are better than mine. Back in August of 2021, he told me one of them. I was there with Asher. He must have been in the stroller because he wasn’t even one year old at the time. Asher wasn’t much interested in what Rob had to say, but I was.

Rob had been a Marine sergeant on a Navy ship in the South China Sea on April 30th, 1975. He was involved when the U.S. frantically tried to evacuate Vietnamese civilians as Saigon was falling. He told me about how chaotic it was. They were shoving aircraft off the side of the ship to make room for more. It was total bedlam.

Rob told me the story the day after Kabul fell to the Taliban. We talked about the evacuation from Afghanistan. I asked him what he thought about it.

He just shook his head and gave me weary smile. Then he said,

“Well, I guess we didn’t learn much.”

It’s almost spring, and soon I will probably see Rob in his garage again.

What will he say to me if I have to tell him that Kyiv has fallen?