This Veterans Day is a bittersweet one for the town where I live and work. Today the VFW had their annual ceremony, and the local Elks Lodge had a free lunch for any veteran that cared to attend. But it was also just over six weeks ago that we laid to rest a young veterean, age 24, who lost his life in Afghanistan. I know mine wasn’t the only heavy heart today as we honored all of our veterans. The memory of that rainy Monday afternoon when we laid Daniel to rest is still a fresh and far too painful memory. I sincerely hope the communities where you fine people live to not have to go through what the young man’ family and we did. This has to stop.
My wife is just the sweetest person! Every Veterans’ Day she makes me a special breakfast, and goes out of her way throughout the day to make this a special day for me.
She really pisses me off! How the hell am I supposed to carry a grudge after such a display? And worst of all, I remember her gratuities the next day!
Yeah, she really pisses me off!
I love you, Honey!
LOL but it just shows how much she loves you too. Can’t argue with that even if you wanted to.
Yeah, I came home when Vietnam Vets were most hated, the end of 1968. People looked but they didn’t engage.
My wife really pisses me off! Two more pancakes please, Honey!
LITU — The way Vietnam vets were treated when they came home was and is a national shame. I don’t think a lot of us progressives have ever quite dealt with that or made amends for it. Disagreeing with the war should never be confused with the honor of those who are caught up in it. I had two brothers in Vietnam. I just cringe when I think about the things that were said and done back then.
It is very hard for Veteran’s Day to separate from Memorial Day when we are still losing our young people. What I read about the president’s deliberations gives me hope that we are attempting to draw this conflict to a close.
I’m a Vietnam Vet and this is what I recall: If you were to shed a tear for those who gave it all for a cause, you’d reconsider ‘ere it fell to earth. For most of the fallen were despised by the people they thought they represented, though knowledge of that perversion would not have diminished their strident purpose. That is the strength of your defenders, and an omen for those who’ve never known the weariness of such purpose.
No one is at fault here! People take a stand; that’s what we do. Those stands differ. It is not a matter of right and wrong. It’s often a result of circumstance. No more, no less.
As a combat veteran, I am grateful for the display of honor my family bestows upon me. Any more is gaudy; any less an abhorrence.
I knew no one who despised the vets from Vietnam. I’m very sorry if that was your experience. I only knew a deep sense of sadness for those who had to go, and constant fear for those who might have to go, and gratitude when people made it back home. And that is how my family felt and how my friends felt.
And that’s how I feel now.
I arrived stateside in Burbank 1967, after surviving several days of incoming artillery (such was Cua Viet), several delayed helo-evacs, and the need to repair impact zones under fire, that made rescue impossible.
Stories were circulating amongst those of us who’d just come back in-country from stateside about mothers who were taking out their sorrow on returning vets; shooting them as they stepped onto the tarmac. After several months of daily incoming, I was never so afraid as the day I stepped foot out onto the tarmac of Burbank Airport.