Private John Block and The Unknown Factor

It is very close to being 37 years ago, exactly, when Private John Block's father died suddenly. I knew Private John Block as well as I knew any of the other trainees at the US Army school at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where they ran thousands through a ten-week course which would guarantee we would then be able to save the lives of our wounded comrades in Viet Nam . Private John Block was called out of morning formation and told the bad news, and within a few minutes a Jeep was there to take him to the airport on emergency leave. I remember the shudder that seized my torso as I imagined how I might react to such an event. I was not ready to lose my parents, and this event may have been my first basic grasping at a philosophy which mandates appreciating life to the fullest, and even if I couldn't be near loved ones at every turn of the page of life, I could still appreciate the fact they were still around. I could phone and write , stay in touch. I was fortunate because my parents were around for many more years. Private John Block returned after a few days to the training routine. We were all excited in a concerned , life-and-death-serious manner, when our assignments came to us after training was through. Whoops of joy went up as one small contingent received orders for Panama. Elation was in the air when a sizable number of soldiers were told they were headed for Germany. My friend who slept in the top bunk above me was sent to Philadelphia's recruiting station. Japan. England. Thailand. Outposts hither and yon we were scattered to...then the roll call started, and platoon after platoon after platoon received the same orders: report to Oakland Army Base. Light groaning murmurs of disappointment wafted through the ranks, and only one WHOOP !...this being from a young man whose home was in the East Bay Area and it did not register on him that Oakland Army Base was this huge jumping-off point for Viet Nam. Me? I got the best deal of my life; I was assigned to Monterey , California, and stayed there for ten months before being handed my one-way ticket to Oakland Army Base and the great beyond . Private John Block...where does he fit into the conclusion? I don't know if he was devastated at his father's death and just didn't care about himself anymore, or was so terrified of going to Viet Nam, or somehow thought he was getting a great deal, but Private John Block and a few others sort of donated their bodies to the Army for experiments to be performed on them! This was by invitation only, and the ones that accepted got a pass on Viet Nam. I asked John about it and he said he would be testing malaria prevention and "other projects". I always wondered about Private John Block and if he ever got out of the test-labs alive or was sacrificed to develop a better malaria prevention tablet or shrapnel resistant body armor. It is a strange and beautiful world. ~ Dexter