CELEBRATING VETERANS DAY

 

 

 

58,000 of my band of brothers died in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands were wounded – for nothing. 

 

 The government lied about the need to support a fledgling democracy in the south of Vietnam.  The real reason we were there was to establish a military base, capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, on the southern border of China.

  

The government eventually knew the war was unwinnable, but kept sending troops into the mangling jaws of the war machine.

 

Finally, we retreated, accomplishing nothing, except a staggering death toll and the lives of Vietnam Veterans forever scared. 

 

Fuck war!

Fuck the politicians that got us into it.

But celebrate those who served.

the Ol'Buzzard

 

 

I DON’T CELEBRATE VETERANS DAY

 

 

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