Awareness: by Allan Bopp

(Clarence) Allan Bopp

I believe that being aware is the key element of any type of success.

Without awareness, you are at the mercy of all that is in your piece of reality, but if you are aware, you can be ready and maybe even control that same reality.

Brothers and sisters let me tell you a story.

I led a Recon team in Nam. On our very first mission, not even thirty minutes out, I noticed something strange about one of the trees on the other side of the clearing we were about to cross.

I was working point at the time. I used the scope to get a closer look. In that moment, it became REAL. What I saw was a sniper, very poorly hidden.

After a close scan of the rest of the clearing and finding nothing, I aimed, fired, and watched him fall and I felt my humanity hit the ground before he did. He had not even seen us.

We finished the mission without any other problems. Thus began a very intense conversation and discussion about awareness.

During the next 18+ months and 50+ successful missions with only one man lost, (another story), and not a scratch on any of us, we rotated back to the world, where we separated and were ordered not to have any contact with each other (ever) and not to tell anybody, ANYBODY, what we had done.

My orders still stand and yes, I have heard that everything about the Vietnam War has been declassified -- and this, I call BS. The orders given to me still stand!

That story ends here ...

Now for the rest of the story. Yes, we were very highly trained. Yes, sometimes we were very lucky, and yes, there were more than just a few times that God helped us. Taking all of this into account, I know it was our intense awareness that kept us alive and well.

I am NOT talking about the hyper-vigilance type of awareness. That is a very different thing than what true awareness is.

Being intensely aware of your part of reality makes you a part of your reality, not just on the outside looking in. You are a PART of your reality. From there, the rest is up to you.

For me, being aware has returned my humanity, my faith, and the real me, to me.

Allan Bopp

I do suffer with PTSD and I cannot hear, however, I am aware of what these problems do to me and now, with doctors and meds, I am no longer that hyper-vigilant, dangerous loner that I had become.

What I am trying to get across to all my brothers and sisters is to BE AWARE. Allow yourself to become part of reality. Yes, sometimes our country is really screwed up, but it's beautiful and it's free, and that is because of what we all had the courage to do.

Allow yourself to talk to and listen to God and be accepted for who you are:  one of His forgiven children. It is amazing to not have to feel guilty any more.

God Bless. Peace and Namaste, my friends

Allan Bopp


**Thank you for sharing your story, Allan.  I'm proud of you.  Namaste. ~CJ


“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do, and by the grace of God, I will.” ~Everett Hale


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