The Last Promise From Hamburger Hill

My knees weakened.

“My mother said nobody from his unit survived long enough to tell her what happened.”

James lowered his head.

“That wasn’t true.”

The courtroom was utterly silent now. No papers moving. No coughing. Nothing.

Only James’s shaking voice.

“We survived,” he said softly. “Some of us wished we hadn’t.”

He placed the pouch in my hand.

The leather felt warm from his skin.

Old.