In 1970 I was in Vietnam for 16 months attached to the Swamp Fox 199th and worked on the Birdog and YO-A air crafts.I recently received and email from a buddy who was in Vietnam also(you remember that war time, don't you?) and he voiced his feelings some 40 years or so later concerning our unwelcome return. I thought I would post it as well as my own response which goes along with the former post I made back some time ago. I still remember the song, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan.
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From: Kurt
Date: 9/4/2009 7:06:29 PM
To: Lanny Camden
Subject: Re: Lanny Camden
Lanny,
It was a shame how Vietnam Veterans were treated. If our country had only said thank you to us loud and clear. If our country had not granted amnesty to the draft dodgers. If they had built us a memorial instead of a black headstone, I think a lot of Vietnam Veterans would not be bitter towards their country. Heck, we would probably tolerate the VA....
Kurt Olney
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Yeah Kurt!
I agree. It was bad enough that the government treated the Vietnam vets the way they did, but I think my biggest beef was the Dodgers (not the ball players) and intellectuals (??) who stood outside of Oakland CA when we returned in their arrogant, unsympathetic attitude that yelled, chanted,heckled and cursed the men who only did what they were asked.
I remember the Captain in charge at Oakland when I returned telling us about what was going on outside the gates with the college intellectuals yelling and throwing eggs and some one asked that we be issued base ball bats and we would scatter the mess. LOL We all had to laugh as brothers.
I think I just pushed most of it from my mind over the years, but there was a band of brothers closeness that only men like Vietnam, WW2, Korea and Mid East men and women soldiers understand. However, it may be the memories and experience of a foolish naive young man that causes me to still fly the American flag in my front yard and feel the pain our boys are feeling as they fight this war on terror when I watch the biased news media report it.
I was in Washington DC back in the 1994 and know that that Vietnam wall had a emotional impact on me as well as others whose memories still are stored in the far back of their minds. America has her faults in government, in its people and its decisions, but she is still the greatest country on the face of the earth because of the sacrifices, dedication and price that men like you and others paid in exchange for being FREE.
Now I fear the war is no longer over seas, but here in our back yard among our own kind in which every civilization that has reached any great status like America has found their end internally when they became divided. That division started back in the Vietnam war area and lost its purpose, it's sacrifice and it's united objective unlike WWI and WW2 which found strength in a country who supported each other including it's military.
The Communists won their objective in Vietnam and we retreated with our tail between our legs and as a minister I know of those missionaries who attempt to work in Vietnam and they tell me of the governments hard line against freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of travel. All we have to do is look at Japan's democracy and South Korea's and Europe's to know that the soldiers in those wars achieved their objectives and were welcome back as the heroes they really were.
When the windows of the eyes are darkened then the depth of the heart can no longer see the light of truth. It is summed up in the song, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which is no longer acceptable is a materialistic callous society of people who have become ungrateful for the sacrifices we remember.
God Bless
Take Care
Other web site by me:
Lannys Blog Talk
Americas Corvette
Street Rod Memories
Flag Springs Church
5.1 Speakers
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
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