Lawrence Silk was 84 years old when a war that never really left his mind once again took over his nights.
He had served three years in the Air Force Engineering Squadron during the Vietnam War and developed advanced dementia. His mind took him back there every night. He kept repeating that he had to go back, that the Pentagon needed his rifle and his uniform. His daughter Julie watched as fear consumed him and could find no way to bring him back to the present. Along with her husband Kenny Dunn, she had an idea that no doctor had suggested to them: find someone from his same squadron, someone who spoke his same language of war so he could be brought out of it.
They posted the request on Facebook, hoping that some active-duty or retired veteran would agree to put on the uniform and visit him. The response came from Lieutenant Colonel Andy LaFrazia, who introduced himself to Lawrence and told him the words he had been waiting to hear for decades: his service was over. No hospital or new treatment was needed. All it took was one man, a uniform, and a sentence for the war to finally let him rest, if only for a moment.