APO 96225

A particularly important morsel of information is that APO 96225 is the mailing address of the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Reading the questions is handy. So this poem portrays several common aspects of the human psyche. The first of course is that the son breezes over the true nature of his time in Vietnam in order to keep his mother from worrying. Naturally, he wants to protect his loved ones from fear and worry, so he simply omits part of the truth. However, the second aspect is the mother's desire to know the real honest truth about what's happening. She will worry either way, so she at least wants to know the truth. And then there is that third aspect, in addition to protecting loved ones from worry and the desire to know the truth. The father gets angry when he learns the truth, and it wasn't as good as he had hoped. He is disappointed by the truth and would rather go back to believing the son's understatements. This represents a common human reaction to bad news: outright dismissal and a request for some better news. It's kind of sad that this is how so many of the veterans were treated. So to make it up for them, here is their parade:

I feel a little better.