While I am NOT a Vietnam Veteran, I am a Vietnam Era Veteran. I can remember being a bush-tailed Seaman traveling in uniform and changing trains at Chicago's Union Station. I was spit on and called a "Baby Killer". Hell, I had not even been outside of Illinois under military orders at the time. The EM club at Great Lakes was one of the largest I ever saw in my 8 years of Naval service and I listened to too many horror stories of returning Marines and sailors who were at the Navy hospital there for treatment of war wounds.
Dave I'll quote you "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another." When Desert Shield broke out and our oldest son was with the 1st Infantry in Saudi Arabia, at a meeting for parents called by Idaho U.S. Senators I watched the 5'2" 130 lb. blonde bombshell I married 40 years ago stand up and tell those two Senators "You ARE NOT going to do to our sons what you did to our husbands and brothers. Give them what they need to fight to win or bring their asses home NOW!" I was supposed to speak next. My statement "She said it all!"
Don't buy me a few beers and bring up the subject of Vietnam. It will get ugly!
The way our returning Vietnam veterans were treated was truly a national shame. Luckily for the Anti-war protestors they took the returning veterans ammo away from them in the Phillipines.
Thankfully this young First Sargeant got the respect he deserved. He gave all.
Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 07-12-2009 at 11:09 PM.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....