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There were 12 of us civilians on a golf trip a couple of years ago. We were having breakfast at a restaurant not too far from a small military base. There were 4 guys in uniform also eating. As they were finishing up I slipped over to the counter and paid their bill. Minutes later they came over to our table to say thanks. My fellow golfers wanted to participate in the good feeling but I refused their cash at that moment. Later, one or two at a time they approached me offering to split the bill with me. They wanted to participate in the gesture so I accepted, and I ate free the rest of that trip.

How different things are now from when soldiers returning from Vietnam where spit on at the airport.

Bob, those of us who served in Vietnam have made a pledge. "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another." The attitude when we came home was one of my biggest bones of contention with what was supposedly the greatest generation.

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Originally Posted by Bob Glenn

How different things are now from when soldiers returning from Vietnam where spit on at the airport.

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You're sure right. I'd like to believe it's so much better now, because people FINALLY realized how badly our military personnel were treated then. I'll let it at that to avoid getting political and stay within TOS.

(Remember that amazing Budweiser ad a few years back that showed people stopping to applaud as a group in uniform passed through an airport. Darn near brought me to tears.)

Well done Tom. Good on ya Sir!

Tom, that was a wonderful thing for you to do!

Dave I aplaude your service in Vietnam, a horribly politically abused and unappreciated war, fought for the right reasons preventing the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia. However, unless I misunderstood your post, I wasn't aware that those who fought in that war were considered the Greatest Generation; I thought WWII was. My apologies if I'm mistaken.

My point Al was that those from WWII, the Greatest Generation, sent us off to war, crippled our ability to fight that war, and then ignored us or blamed us when it was lost. I remember going into a VFW post for a beer after I got out of the service and being made to feel very very unwelcome. There was a lot of verbal abuse and it was 45 years before I ever again had anything to do with any veteran's organization. That war was chosen, run, and mismanaged by the supposed greatest generation (no caps intentional).

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Originally Posted by Dave Anderson NH

My point Al was that those from WWII, the Greatest Generation, sent us off to war, crippled our ability to fight that war, and then ignored us or blamed us when it was lost. I remember going into a VFW post for a beer after I got out of the service and being made to feel very very unwelcome. There was a lot of verbal abuse and it was 45 years before I ever again had anything to do with any veteran's organization. That war was chosen, run, and mismanaged by the supposed greatest generation (no caps intentional).

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Dave,
I get it. Thank you for your brave and honorable service.
Fred

Dave, you're right in that the politicians who were involved with the Vietnam War were in fact from the "period" of the Greatest Generation, but I believe it was the politicians, not the people of the Greatest Generation (our countrymen), that were at fault. In my opinion the "people" of the Greatest Generation were exactly that; those that stepped up & sacrificed for our country, our soldiers and their families. These people did not include the politicians who were not in harm's way. And those who deserted our country, i.e. fonda, kerry, et al, by supporting the enemy, were traitors.
It was more than a shame that the soldiers of the Vietnam War were treated so badly, rather than returning as heroes. Their, and their families, sacrifices were not appreciated, instead they became a political football. This aspect was an embarrassment to our real country, not the one postured by those in office at the time, i.e. johnson, et al, who ran the war from office rather than from the battlefield.

It was the people that treated Dave that way, not the politicians.

I've posted about it before, but here's another recommendation for Ken Burns' excellent PBS documentary series on the Vietnam War. In addition to the familiar perspectives, he brought in several interviews with Vietnamese civilians and North Vietnamese military and political leaders without making any type of political statement one way or another IMO. It was very eye opening to gain perspectives that haven't been very well known in the US before. I was well aware that the US casualties were an alarming 58,000 give or take. I was not aware that the Vietnamese casualties between civilians and military were an estimated 2.5 million. That's staggering, especially for a small country like that.

Burns' documentary was controversial because unlike WWII, the Civil War, and earlier wars, there are still so many living people that were personally involved in the Vietnam War. Nonetheless, I think it's important for those of us too young to have participated to study and learn from objective history if we hope to avoid repeating the tragedies.

Very complicated situation and my heart goes out to all who served and suffered regardless of nationality, color, rank or age.






On a lighter note, in the list of countries that report casualties in Vietnam, Great Britain reported 1.
Taiwan reported 25 people and one mongoose. I wonder how it came to be that a Taiwanese mongoose ended up in Vietnam, let alone counted as a Taiwanese casualty.