Jungle warfare

"Keeping your head when all about you others are losing theirs" 

My upstairs neighbor when I lived in Haledon used to talk about the traps the Cong would lay for him when he was over seas in Vietnam, how they were always trying to trick him and his men into making some move they could capitalize on.

“I never let them get in my head,” he said. “You would hear them out there, making noise, making you think you were crazy, and trying to get you angry so that you put yourself at risk. We weren’t crazy, and we always knew the truth. They were only trying to hurt us, and as long as we kept our heads, and knew who the enemy was, we were okay. Those who forgot for a minute just how evil those sons of bitches were, didn’t make it back alive. I’m here because I stayed sane and never let them piss me off.”

Never, however, was too strong a word. Once he thought he might befriend locals.

“When they butchered my best friend, I went ape shit,” he said. “That’s how I got shot up the ass. After that, I knew better. Never forget they are always out to get you, and sometimes, they even think they're smarter than you are."