APO 96225

A young man once went off to war in a far country,

and when he had time, he wrote home and said,

"Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here."

But his mother -- reading between the lines as mothers

always do -- wrote back,

"We're quite concerned. Tell us what it's really like."

And the young man responded,

"Wow! You ought to see the funny monkeys."

To which the mother replied,

"Don't hold back. How is it there?"

And the young man wrote,

"The sunsets here are spectacular!"

In her next letter, the mother pleaded,

"Son, we want you to tell us everything. Everything!"

So the next time he wrote, the young man said,

"Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm

on women and children."

And the father wrote right back,

"Please don't write such depressing letters. You're

upsetting your mother."

So, after a while,

the young man wrote,

"Dear Mom, sure rains here a lot."