Happy Vietnam Veterans Day

[Mike Henderson]

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day.

In another 10 to 20 years there won't be many of us left and those will be in wheelchairs.

Mike

[David Dockstader]

Unfortunately, many of us already are. Not me, but not for lack of trying. Be well, my brothers ... and sisters.

[Lee Schierer]

I didn't have to go but I respect those that did.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Thanks Mike. It's hard to believe that I came home from there with 2 Purple Hearts almost 52 years ago. I still grieve for my brothers who are forever young.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Thanks Mike. It's hard to believe that I came home from there with 2 Purple Hearts almost 52 years ago. I still grieve for my brothers who are forever young.

A co-worker has a pen-and-ink drawing above his desk of an old man leaning into the Vietnam Memorial wall, his hand pressed to a name. Tho' it is not his reflection looking back from the wall. It is a platoon of young Marines in brain-buckets and jungle fatigues, one pressing his hand back. Forever young.

Thanks to all who served.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks Mike. It's hard to believe that I came home from there with 2 Purple Hearts almost 52 years ago. I still grieve for my brothers who are forever young.

Yes, I came back in 1971 so this is 50 years for me (no purple hearts). I should look up my DEROS date so I can mark 50 years.

I don't remember exactly but in the Army I think two purple hearts got you out of combat. That true in the Marines?

Mike

[I left Vietnam August 2, 1971, arrived June 2, 1970, so 14 months. Just looked it up.]

[Patrick McCarthy]

I was in college at the time, and we were withdrawing or withdrawn when i got out in '73. Still miss high school friends who never came back, and honor all that did serve. I never understood the mistreatment many received when they did come back. Thank you to all of you and your families. Patrick

[Dave Anderson NH]

In the Corps Mike it was either 2 hearts of over 48 hours hospitalization or 3 total and you got sent home. My first was Aug 23, '68, a cut and patch the shrapnel holes at the battalion aid station and then back to duty. The second in May '69 was 3 weeks hospital and then back into the bush. Typical Marine Corps they kept me in the bush until 1300 the day I rotated back to the states.

[Mike Henderson]

I was in college at the time, and we were withdrawing or withdrawn when i got out in '73. Still miss high school friends who never came back, and honor all that did serve. I never understood the mistreatment many received when they did come back. Thank you to all of you and your families. Patrick

There's been some research about how the Vietnam vets were treated when they came home. See here.

A number of the vets became anti-war protesters. The argument is that the anti-war people did not treat the vets badly because they recognized that the vets could be their allies.

I never encountered any problems after I returned (or before I went). I think most people recognized that it was not the soldier who was to blame, but the politicians.

Mike

[On a different subject, my belief is that the war - as fought - was unwinnable. The only way to win a war is to take the fight to the enemy. And yet, we never invaded North Vietnam, even when they sent regular army troops into the south (they invaded the south with regular, not irregular, forces). That was definitely grounds for attacking North Vietnam. When Germany invaded Poland, that was the start of WWII.

The reason we never invaded was because China let it be known that if we invaded North Vietnam they would enter the war, as they did in Korea. None of the US politicians wanted a war with China on the Asian mainland.

North Vietnam was supplied by the Soviet Union and China. North Vietnam provided the soldiers. We couldn't stop the flow of arms without getting into a war with the Soviet Union or China so we tried to attack the thing that North Vietnam supplied - the soldiers. That's why there was that stupid "body count" strategy. We thought if we killed enough North Vietnamese soldiers they would sue for peace. But North Vietnam was a dictatorship, willing to spend the lives of it's citizens.

The US military essentially became a border patrol entity. North Vietnam was able to decide when it was going to attack and all the US could do was defend. You sure can't win on the defense. (Let's say that we destroy a North Vietnamese division. They would reform the division in the safety of North Vietnam with new soldiers - young men became draft age each year - and train them in North Vietnam, then send them down to South Vietnam. It might take a year or two but they would replenish their forces. To win, you have to destroy the enemy's capability to wage war. We could not do that under the constraints we faced).

None of us were told these things back in the day. ]

[David Lageman]

Just one thing to say...Thank you all for your service!!!

[Joe Wood]

I finished advanced training, mortars, in 1970, heard about a jungle school I could volunteer for, figured I should learn as much as I could before heading to Nam, finished the course,

and got sent to Germany!

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Four years in the Navy 66-70 and never at sea and never went to Viet Nam. To all the guys and gals that did thanks for your service.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thank you. All of you. You were brave and honorable. You served, when many others were not willing.

With deepest respect,
Fred

[Mike Null]

My thanks, respect, and best wishes to all who served.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I served from 11/68 through 11/76. By the grace of God I never served in Vietnam.

Thank You Vietnam Veterans!