Rob Purvis tells the story of traveling with three of his buddies from his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Grand Forks, North Dakota to join the US Army and go off to fight in Vietnam. He remembers them all very much enjoying basic training, which brought back fond memories of their teen years in the Canadian Cadets. After basic they were split up, and following infantry AIT, Mr. Purvis joined the Special Forces and spent a year training in Panama, including preparing for the potential rescue of astronauts returning from the Apollo moon missions. Although politics prevented him from being sent to the 5th Special Forces Group as originally intended, and he was instead sent to the 4th Infantry Division, where he was able to volunteer for the 75th Rangers, which at least came with a pay raise. And because he had a top secret crypto security clearance from his time with the Special Forces, he ended up as liaison with the division headquarters. He describes getting all the intelligence briefings, planning and preparing four-man Ranger team missions, and briefing and debriefing the teams. One of his most poignant memories was taking a team “down to the helipad and we talked. And I got them a Coke before they put them on the chopper. And a couple of days later they were in contact and three out of four of them got killed. And so I was there when they come back. It was pretty traumatic.” One of his three Canadian pals was also killed in the war. Sixteen years after he left Vietnam, Mr. Purvis discovered other Canadian veterans of the Vietnam War, and was instrumental in setting up the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Association. He finds it ironic that the Canadian Legion put up memorials to the thousands of Americans who, prior to the United States entering World War II, “came up to Canada and joined the Air Force … but when we did it we were traitors and mercenaries.”