I hate being
told, ‘Thank you for your service.
58,479 Americans
died in the Vietnam war - and that is the official count. It doesn’t include the brothers that later
died from Agent Orange exposure, suicide, related injuries – not to mention the
maimed and mentally injured.
One 18-year-old
young man I knew took five rounds in his stomach. He was engaged to be married to a young girl before
deployment, but in the hospital he was told he would have to wear a colostomy bag for
the rest of his life. He cried constantly. I don’t know what happened to him.
Another
friend I use to ride with in Florida we called Choo-Choo. He had been shot when his group was overrun by
VC. He played dead while they searched
him. The next day he was recovered and
placed on the skirt of a tank to be taken back to base area. He fell off the tank and it was another day
before he was discovered and taken to the field hospital. Sometimes when we were out drinking together
Choo-Choo’s eyes would roll up in his head, he would fall on the floor drooling
and make a noise: choo choo choo… I
always believed he was hearing the tank treads in his head.
What did we
accomplish in Vietnam? We left North Vietnam
the most advanced armed country with American military weapons in South East
Asia…. and we built a wall in Washington D.C.
Fuck war
Fuck celebrating
war
the Ol’Buzzard
I was taught that Remembrance Day does not celebrate war but acknowledges the sacrifice of young lives to it. War itself is a horrible thing.
ReplyDeleteVeterans Day started off as Armistice Day. I'm old enough that I remember observing a moment of silence in school at 11 a.m. It seemed like back then there still was an emphasis on acknowledging sacrifice. Now it's become a glorification of the military. Everyone in a uniform is a "hero" and they're all protecting our freedoms. As a Vietnam era veteran (USWAC) I tend to get pissy if someone thanks me for my service. Those folks are usually the same people who'd have heart failure if one of their kids enlisted and for sure they never served themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the "Thank You for Your Service" bullshit for several reasons.
ReplyDelete1. It's just a meaningless platitude.
2. I was coerced into joining, enlist or else get DRAFTED!
3. To me it was just a job that didn't pay SHIT!
I've always had a problem with honoring the people who actually shoot the guns in a volunteer military. Why join up if not to learn warware? One side says there would be no war if there were no warriors. The drafted men are another story--they did their duty to their country even tho they didn't ask to be there. But a big BUT...USA has foreign & domestic enemies that require a strong military presence. China/Russia will force our hand at some point.
ReplyDeleteI used to say thank you for your service until one guy pointed that same thing out to me and also said I was drafted..no draft? I would have stayed home and smoked weed.
ReplyDelete