Does it make any different, these decades ago? I don't know. I maybe should know, but I don't. It was so far away, and a different life. Those kids, me, on those choppers, manning those 50's, picking up the wounded, were not who we, I am now. They were, I did those things, but I'm not the same person.
Well wishes to those like me. Here's to us, damn few of us left.
I am one of those also Mike, so right back at you buddy.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that a pretty high percentage of people I know, don't have any idea about that part of my life. Probably don't even know I was there.
I know there a lot of people who totally identify themselves with being a "Vet." I'm not one of them. Being a vet does not explain, or describe who I am at all. You'll never see me in parade, or wearing a "Vietnam Vet" hat. I know my opinion of that whole kerfuffle doesn't mesh with what what a lot of folks from our generation think. Besides, I KNOW that I'm diametrically opposed to most of them politically also. You always get me thinking and spilling my guts here Mike. That's a really good thing.
Yeah, there with you Pat. Fuck em'.
DeleteDon't mean a thing, not a thing.
it's all gravy, pal. every day. only way we can look at it.
Every singly day..
DeleteI was just a little too young for Vietnam—graduating high school in 75, right after Saigon fell. Thanks for your service.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the thought, what you should be really thankful for is you didn't go. It was a bad, wrong war, and we were on the wrong side. The other side, the NVA, the VC, might not have been the best, but the ARVN were corrupt, as was the government of south vietnam, and Johnson et al knew it.
DeleteThe vets of WW1 and WW2 deserve thanks, and my son, a ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq, but I'm not sure about my cohort in VN.
Pat, you're welcome to chime in here.
Jeff, consider yourself lucky. In my opinion, the 58,000 Americans who died there, died for no other reason than to make some rich people richer. THAT makes me very sad.
DeleteI thought I was doing the "right thing" by joining the Marines and going to Vietnam. You know, fighting for my country, stopping the spread of communism, and all that stuff. It didn't take me long at all to realize that I wasn't fighting for my country, or stopping the spread of communism. It was all BS! The "Domino Theory" was exactly the same as the Iraqi "Weapons of Mass Destruction" of our day.
Nobody I knew in while in Vietnam, or since, has told me they were fighting for those two things. There were two other things they were in fact fighting for, and fighting hard. They were fighting for their buddies, and fighting to get home alive. There was absolutely no way we were going to, or trying to win that war. What Mike said about our Vietnamese allies there is sadly very true.
I’m out in the boonies in my RV right now. In the campground I’m at, they held a celebration this morning. I could see and hear everything, but really didn’t want to go outside.
ReplyDeleteAt ten sharp there was a parade. It consisted of 7 golf carts all decked out in patriotic crepe paper and flags (I’ll bet most of it was from China). Each cart was piloted by an old white guy. They were all sporting various forms of “look at me, I’m a vet” hats. They drove them up and down the four rows of RVs and trailers as if there was going to be throngs of well wishers and admirers cheering them on. There were none that I could see.
The grand parade finally ended up at the flagpole, where they had a ceremonial raising of the flag, followed by an embarrassing rendition of the national anthem, performed by two elderly ladies. It was really bad. So bad that I felt the need to protest their voices by silently
taking a knee in my RV.
Then they all got back in their cool rides (not), and drove single file through the campground once again. This time they did it in the opposite direction though. I’m so glad they did! Three of the seven golf carts had TRUMP stickers on the back, and two had Make America Great Again stickers.
BTW, I used the term “golf carts” to describe the vehicles, but I’m sure they have never been used for golfing.
There is one thing I’m very grateful about today. I’m grateful that I’m not an angry and stupid old white guy...
(o)
ReplyDeleteThis time, a tear. Thanks for being, you two.
prolly should thank our parent's, but on behalf of them, we accept.
Deletethank you, joanne
It matters, even if we are not able to crawl inside of those who wonder.
ReplyDeleteAnd you don't want to, m'dear. some part never leaves, pat and i will tell you. we're better off being loved, loving back, and keeping that part inside, out of harms way, or the doing harm way.
DeleteVery well said Mike. I totally agree with you.
DeleteThe NPR/Moth radio hour featured three stories from the Vietnam war. Here's the link if anyone is interested. Mike and Pat, maybe not, since you lived it, or maybe so because you lived it-I'm not sure. One is about the choppers you were on, Mike, or, one in particular, anyways. https://themoth.org/radio-hour/the-vietnam-war. And I believe you both have as much right as your son, Mike, and any other vet, to be thanked for the sacrifices you made and I think you're owed an apology for being sent into that hell hole. So thank you both and I am also glad that you are not angry stupid old white guys.
ReplyDeleteThanks lady. I think on behalf of Pat, we accept your thanks with gratitude.
DeleteAt this point, speaking again for myself, I'm just trying to do what i can to make myself easy with life, make some kind of contribution (like Pat does with his photography, and live it out.
You are also speaking for me Mike, because I feel the same way.
DeleteThanks, for then and for now.
ReplyDeleteGlad there are people like you, Tom. Carrying on the fight in ways that most of us can't...being articulate and accurate, in a time where that is not a valued commodity. Not many of you left either. Hope you've left a cohort that can carry on.
DeleteCheers, Mike
How bitter sweet. I will share this with a few of my friends of like mind. This whole subject take me back to my college graduation in the spring of 63. JFK's "ask not" words helped me to volunteer till they said I wasn't physically qualified. I viewed the war from afar in a small Minnesota town barely touched by it. Having studied Rostow and others theories in school I was slightly skeptical but "patriotic" to the core. A short few years later I met my cousin at a family Christmas event. My world view changed. Terry was an army vet who had fought in Korea. Later as a Michigan Tech civil engineer he spent several years in Vietnam. It was rebuilding the Saigon water system and other projects. He told the family the war was a sham and not to believe anything we were told about it. "The government is corrupt and we spend a lot of time giving bribes to get anything done. And the people hate us as much as they did the French. When Terry came home he brought a wonderful Vietnamese wife. Now he has three grandchildren. And in his eighties we still find time to talk about "the forgotten war" but not so much about Vietnam. Thank you Mike for this wonderful and heartfelt post...:)
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, TB, for your contributions to our country and children. They far outweigh mine. You are the unsung hero's of the period you and i shared.
DeleteI'm glad those days are gone, but happy that you are here to remember.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Juno.
DeleteI was going to write a variation of Jono's comment, i.e. thanks for coming home, not in a body bag, Mike and Pat. I finally got around to watching the whole Vietnam show that I had taped from PBS. My wife asked me if I hated Nixon any more after watching it. I said what I hated was that all, not just Nixon or LBJ, but all of our presidents have lied to us about one thing or another and they continue to do so.
ReplyDeleteAnd it continues, bruce.The current is just the worst of the bunch. I hope the generation after us, whomever they are, learns, and does the right thing. It's what we haven't done.
Delete