When my father was in Vietnam, he was part of the Americal Division and he continued to wear that unit’s patch on his uniform throughout the rest of his military career.  As a child, I remember looking at that blue patch with the Southern Cross in gold and thinking about far-off places where you could actually see stars that were different.  Last night, while I was on watch, I saw the Southern Cross for the first time.  We were sailing on a starboard tack with very light air and I was at the helm, steering Amistad toward the point where we’ll be able to make a big right turn and start our real run up to Senegal. 

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