An excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s, Bluebeard:

"Fathers are always so proud, the first time they see their sons in uniform," she said.

"I know Big John Karpinksi was," I said. He is my neighbor to the north, of course. Big John's son Little John did badly in high school, and the police caught him selling dope. So he joined the Army while the Vietnam War was going on. And the first time he came home in uniform, I never saw Big John so happy, because it looked to him as though Little John was all straightened out and would finally amount to something.

But then Little John came home in a body bag.