The tradition here, a more longstanding one, is that if you are leaving Ascension and keen not to come back, you have to paint the rock, unseen, at night.

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My children cry at night and are afraid that these nasty people will come back for them.

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To me, doing this and knowing that people back home can sleep safely at night and they don't have to come do it--or, you know, even, you know, guys that were in Vietnam or World War II, they know what it's like.

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