As a Vet, I wish to thank all those who served and to remember those and their families who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. It's been 24 years since for me, but I won't forget! Karl
i was not there...that certainly changed my life and gave me a chance to have a long life...
not so, with some of my friends and classmates...an army platoon leader and an army medevac chopper pilot come to mind, when i think of viet nam...i have not forgotten them either...
let us hope that we have finally learned not to pursue wars of culture change...neither foreign nor domestic...
Ed, you are the time that tries mens' souls! You have sure managed to demean "Vietnam Veterans' Day!"
Culture change? You mean helping a people defend themselves against a million man invading army led by a Red homicidal maniac (aren't they all), who decided the only "nationalist" was a communist and all the others needed to be killed?
Ed, Could I please suggest that you get off the drugs and just shut the flip up about Vietnam. As usual you know diddly. Now go off and flash your peace sign, put flowers in your hair, chant "Hey Hey LBJ How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?" and "Out Now!" and join hands with Jane Fonda at the Canadian border and glory in the great Spring Victory of a totalitarian dictatorship that pushed 2 million people into small boats floating in the South China Sea, herded a million more into reeducation camps for up to 10 years, conducted a genocidal campaign against the Montagnards, and reduced Vietnam to the poorest country in the world for 20 years. Do feel proud of your brave exploits during that period? You shouldn't be. And leave our day, the one dedicated to men who tried, alone. JERK
I was either in the National Guard (joined as a high school senior in 1962, when my local Guard unit was significantly under strength) and was either in the Guard or working for the CIA during the remainder of the war in SE Asia. I tip my cap to all those who were "in country". This country is in a much better place these days, when Vietnam vets get the respect from their fellow Americans that they always deserved. It was too long in coming.
Larry, You are correct. I'm glad that people are starting to understand that. I was shocked when returning through the San Francisco airport to get home, I was spit on by a couple of collage guys passing by me. That is why I remember this day in particular! Karl
When I celebrate Vietnam Veteran's Day I always remember two people who were there. One is still with us, Bobby Parris, and the other who was a pool shooting buddy in high school, is Rusty Evans. Rusty's name is on the wall. I am good friends with his nephew, and namesake.
I served in a Naval aviation squadron, but pay much higher respects to Bobby and Rusty, and all those who's served during that war, over there.
I know much more about Bobby's service than I do Rusty's, mainly because Bobby is still here to be able to relate some of it. Bobby deserves more than just appreciation for generic service. He was a "tunnel rat", partly due to his short stature. I can only imagine what it was like to be dropped down a spider hole with a flashlight and a .45, and hear the footsteps of retreating VC going through the tunnels ahead of him, as he chased them. He talks of it with self defacing humor. But he, and Rusty, and all the others on the wall, have my undying appreciation.
I have mentioned him here before, but his service to his country shines so brightly, through the years, that I will honor him again in memory.
Major Charles Kelly, my cousin's husband and founding pilot of Operation Dustoff, the chopper medi-vac unit in Vietnam. He was shot through the heart as he landed his chopper in a hot LZ to rescue wounded. Through his efforts, and those of other pilots in his unit, many young men came home, that might have died on the battlefield.
I visit his grave annually, in honor. Thank you Major, from a grateful heart.
What a public opinion turn-around! In 1971/72 the Army wouldn't let us wear our uniform while traveling as there were hippies getting their asses kicked for spitting on Joes!
Mike, Maj. Kelly's funeral solidified my appreciation for those who put themselves in harm's way for the cause of freedom. I was 12 yrs. old, and the missing man formation fly by, the gun salute, the taps bugled and echoed by another bugler in the distance, along with all the other trappings of a military funeral changed me forever. I'll never forget it.
My ETS was November 1, 1969 , so I can't verify or dispute AZMike's statement about not being allowed to wear a uniform while travelling in 1971/1972. I have never heard of such a rule. My experience was much different. I always travelled in a class A Army uniform. Sometimes I didn't have a car or money for public transportation. I hitchhiked up and down Interstate 95 for two years, in uniform, and never experienced any bad treatment. I also spent plenty of time in airports and on planes during that same 1967 to 1969. One of my buddies got pinched in Petersburg, VA for going 120 miles per hour at dawn one Saturday morning. He was locked up in the old Petersburg dungeon and I and another soldier were released to continue our trip home to Washington. We were picked up on an I-95 exit ramp by a Virginia state policeman who said we were violating the law by hitchhiking on the interstate. We thought we were back in jail but the patrolman took us thirty miles north to the north end of Richmond. He let us out on an exit ramp and wished us luck on the rest of our trip north. If we had any money, he would have taken us to the bus station. Travelling in uniform without money was a trying experience, but with no negative political situations. Just my experience. Others may have had different ones.
I was lucky to miss the spitting and protests, by taking an intratheater transfer from Nam to Germany in 1970. By the time I got back home, the worst of it was over and nobody wanted to hear about it. As far as "Dustoff" was concerned, a Dustoff pilot would fly his chopper sideways through the gates of hell to pick up a "friendly". There is a special place in heaven for Dustoff pilots, combat medics, and corpsmen. God bless them all, whether they lived through it or live in the "wall" now. Mike
Strom Thurmond addressed the 82nd Airborne during our Division Review at Fort Bragg NC, July 1972. Outside the main gate Jane Fonda was leading a protest that had generated a substantial crowd. We were STRONGLY warned to avoid any contact with the crowd as the results could be easily predicted!
Mike, At the time of my travels, we were required to wear our uniforms to travel on the airlines using "standby" rates which Is all I could afford. Regarding Jane Fonda, don't even get me started! How she avoided prosecution for treason is beyond me. I had the chance to visit the helicopter training base in Mineral Wells, Texas on my return and was impressed by it. Karl
public protest of war as a political option is one thing...
but, once our fellow citizens are sent in harms way, following the orders of our president, then, its time for us all to "rally round the flag"...
and if one chooses not to show public support for "the troops"...then as responsible, good citizens, one should do absolutely nothing that could be used to aid and abet those trying to kill our fellow citizens, "in the field"...
to do otherwise, certainly fits the legal definition of treason...
and for those who served honorably and did their duty, you have my utmost respect and admiration...
and for those who made it home alive...and then to suffer abuse from their fellow citizens, you have my deepest sympathy and admiration...
I was a MAT team leader in the Mekong Delta in 1971-72. By the time I left we had figured out the formula for winning and, in fact, were winning the war. problem is that by then we'd lost the support of the public because of the politicians like Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and especially McNamara, The cause was noble and we saved lives in our little sphere. The enemy was evil incarnate and would stoop to nasty and horrendously violent methods to get the South Vietnamese citizenry to follow their political philosophy. My team and I got up close and personal with those evil doers a nightly basis with significant success. I was happy to do everything I could do to protect the good Vietnamese people of our district and province and it breaks my heart to think of the fate we left them with when we left.
I didn't experience any of the name calling/spitting/rudeness and I wore my uniform both going and coming home. In fact, a fellow bought me a drink at the bar in SFO and thanked me for serving.....and that was 1971 or 1972 in San Francisco!
I can't say that I can recall any problems wearing a uniform as late as mid-68. We'd routinely stop at a cafe and grab a bite to eat after drill, wearing our uniforms. That was in my hometown of Waterloo, IA. Pretty much a blue collar city.
But serving in an Army Reserve unit in Iowa City starting in early 1974, it was a very different situation. College town. If we went out after drill on Saturday night, the only place we felt welcome if we didn't change into civvies was the American Legion. That was a Military Intelligence unit, and one of the reasons we were located in Iowa City--in those pre-Internet days--was so that we could use the university library to do open source research. We never went there in uniform.
Much later on, we were ordered not to fly in uniform. That was when Black September and other Arab terrorist organizations were hijacking planes. And in some cases, killing American military personnel. Anything that connected us to the military--ID card, dog tags, etc--went into the check baggage.
Funny thing about the hijacking. Reserve personnel on active duty for short periods of time have a start and end date on their orders. One poor guy was on a hijacked flight. Lucky enough to avoid being killed. However, the passengers were not released by the terrorists until after the individual's orders had ended. Which meant he didn't get paid for those days. The military immediately changed their policy so that orders were automatically extended until you were released if you were "detained" by hijackers. Seemed to be the fair thing to do.
I was warned in July 1966 when I stopped by friends of my father at Stanford on my way to Vietnam for the 1st tour. not to go into San Francisco with a uniform. I didn't. On my first return in late July 1967, I flew from San Francisco to Atlanta in Class A's..the airline upgraded me to 1st class. I was so tired I slept the whole way. On return from second tour Nov 1968 I mustered out at Fort Lewis and flew in full class A's..jump boots, Green Beret to Atlanta and on to Tuscaloosa. No problems. But the South was different from the rest of the country.
Incudentally, I arrived in Vietnam for a second tour in early April 1968. I ETS'd in May but was on a MACVSOG operation with my team RT DELAWARE west of Ben Het near the Laotian border. I came out of the field technically a civilian. I had forgotten to extend enlistment. I had to fly down to Nha Trang, still a civilian, to do so. The recruitment office was closed. A Knife was stuck in the door with a message, "I cum hyar to re-up...you aim't hyar...nex time ah c u I gonna kik you." I managed to extend later that day and got back up to FOB-2 Kontum the next morning.
I was in the Marines and went to Vietnam in August of 1965. My buddy and I volunteered to go to one of the recon outfits and were with 3rd Recon Battalion as radio operators. We both made it home ok but he was killed in a car accident 2 months after getting home. We were going to go back to Vietnam together and hopefully get back in our old outfit.Never had the heart after that and found out my replacement as a radio operator was killed 2 weeks after I left Vietnam. Knowing how my mom suffered emotionally when I was there I would probably do things different today if given it to do over. She lost her boyfriend at Pearl Harbor and I can only imagine how hard it was for her for me to be in a combat zone.Had a couple of run ins with some guys who wanted to disrespect me to my face which did not turn out well for them but nothing too serious. I still am a bit "jumpy" and like to sit watching the door when out and about. Probably due more to the current spate of irrational violence going on then Vietnam. I do sleep very lightly and really have never had a good nights sleep in many years unless on pain medication after surgeries.I have always been a nature freak and Vietnam was paradise for observing wildlife and being in a recon outfit I had a lot of time to just sit and observe what was going on in remote areas.Much sadness about those who did not make it home alive and much of the deaths were senseless and could have been prevented.Just like any other war in that respect.
One of my friends in grad school (1974) was a Vietnam vet. This was the University of Northern Iowa, the former state teachers' college. Not nearly as liberal/radical as Iowa City. My buddy and I and a bunch of other students--some of whom we knew and some we didn't--were together at a big table drinking in a bar just off campus. Someone mentioned something to my buddy about having served in Vietnam, which Jerry didn't advertise. A girl sitting across the table from him asked him if he killed any babies in Vietnam. I'll never forget his reply: "Say that again, [censored - come on man!], and I'll rip your throat out."
Uh oh. Post censored because I used a word for a female dog that Jerry chose to apply to a female student.
Apparently, there are two different experiences about travelling in uniform. Bob Blair's experience being like mine, no orders to not wear the uniform, even into the seventies. It seems that such orders were issued below the Army level, most likely company or battalion level.
How times change. We who were in VN in the 60's and 70's know about our attitudes toward the Vietnamese, the behavior of US citizens toward the war, and the GIs that served. Jump forward 50 years. Yesterday, it was announced that VinFast, a Vietnamese auto manufacturer, will build a multi-billion $ electric car and battery plant near Raleigh employing 8-9,000. The news media is treating it like the Vietnamese are our saviors.
Chu Lai 68-69 Seabees, not in a battalion but base maintenance, our guys filled in for the Marines at time as door gunners, in perimeter bunkers, some local patrols, hauling ammo/bombs and clearing mines with our dozers.
I think the uniform thing was local, in CA they suggested that we didn't wear our uniforms out in the public. Flying into New Orleans I had to wear my uniform, I took the bus to Shreveport and never got a word said to me, in Shreveport I didn't have a credit card so couldn't rent a car. I went to the local car dealer to try and buy a cheap car and have them buy it back when I left. The dealer rented me a car for $10/day and $.10/mile I expected it to be a junker when I came back into the office to tell them I couldn't find it he took me out and lead me to a brand new(10 miles on it) convertible and said "Have a good time, you deserve it. Bring it back in one piece please".
My deepest gratitude to all that served in this war. But also to those that served in all times of peace and war.
My father was a Veteran of WW2, Korean War, and Vietnam, effectively spending nearly all of his working years in the service.. I was 18 years old, holding a 1A Draft Card, in 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, and effectively, the draft ended.
With the aggression against Ukraine, the importance of military service in our country is particularly high on our minds.
The attitude towards vets these days is just plain refreshing. On two occasions, once with my wife (who is also a vet) and once alone at the same restaurant in Rhinelander, someone who chose to remain anonymous paid for our meal. I was wearing a "US Army Veteran" cap both times.
Dave Schiller, it isn't just the media who treat our former enemies as saviors or friends. We all do. It has something to do with the female version of our enemies, who are often hotties. It's a fact of life. We can't do a thing about it. We kill each other for years, then we marry their daughters and we buy their cars. I won't mention any particular country, but it happens in all of them. U.S.Army, 1967-1969,
could be a result of guilt, felt by anti war protesters who took to the streets and allowed themselves to be video taped...
got to believe those videos were shown as recruiting tools and morale boosters by the peoples liberation army of vietnam and elsewhere...
when one is young and stupid, they sometimes do harmful and stupid things, which if they have a soul and conscience, they later regret and try to make amends...
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/69631_600x400.jpg)
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/69633_800x600.jpg)
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/69634_600x400.jpg)
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/69637_600x400.jpg)