So many of them went and did their job and came home...with no fanfare....and to people spitting on them....right at the airports...
I really think my junkyard dog attitude toward anything that represents being "a hippie" is motivated the most by what those AHoles did to our troops coming home and getting off the planes at airports all over the country...
I want to use this opportunity to bring up one of our own...
Ken Maples.. Bulletbutt...
I had communicated with Ken like I do a lot of forum members...told me if I was ever up in Washington to look him up...
well I go up I 5 to Seattle on business quite often, so I stopped and called him once, and told him I'd be passing back thru his home town on the way home.. so we set up a time to meet at a restaurant right off of I 5 in Kelso WA...
We had lunch together.. and must have talked for 3 hours or more...when it was time to hit the road, Ken quickly grabbed the check and wouldn't hear of me paying for my tab... regardless of how I tried...
Then a couple of months later I was passing thru again so I called and we had lunch once again...
Ken was a Vietnam Vet, 5 years older than me...he was facing the draft so he went down and enlisted...got himself into communications.. he had seen combat and did his job under fire, but came home in one piece, no wounds and no medals...he mustered out and got on with his life...
he used his military training and got a job with the County there in Washington and worked there 30 plus years before retiring...
His wife was retiring from her state job also....
The first visit we talked about our military time and experiences....
The second one, he told me about his and his wife's retirement plans....
they had bought a piece of property over on the east side of the Cascades.... they were building a Veterans Home, to house about 10 vets.. guys from the Vietnam Days and in need...they weren't going into this venture for money, they were going into it to assist fellow veterans whose life after returning home hadn't been as fortunate as Ken's had been...
I was really impressed, both with the plan and how humble of a man Ken was...I even threw in some support for some of the peripheral needs, such as an Emergency Call system for his facility....
Just before I was going to call Ken and let him know I was going to be passing thru Kelso again on the way to or from Seattle, Varmint Guy posted that Ken had passed away...
evidently had a heart attack, when his wife was out shopping, so he had no one there to call the ambulance.....
Ground had been broken on his new endeavor to serve his fellow veterans over near Yakima....his home in Kelso was on the market... a heart attack cut that all short...
Ken was only 63 years old....
Ken was an example.. many of these guys as young kids, went off to serve and became unsung heroes... and then just as unceremoniously, they came home and lived another life as an unsung hero....
We only met twice face to face Ken, but I think of you frequently.. always with sadness but a lot of respect and appreciation....
The campfire is blessed with a lot of Vietnam Vets, who did their job and came home yet are still heroes every day of their lives...Ken, my honored friend Miles, Woody, Jim Martin...guys, the good Lord and the campfire have given me the pleasure and honor of getting to meet... yet guys that drip with humility....
a salute of deep felt appreciation for each one of you gentlemen.....
and lets no forget those that came afterward, that have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf....such as "Crash", eh76's son who has served 8 tours in the Middle East...
in the Marines and then in the Wyoming NG....
a Salute of respect and prayers for High Brass.. another soldier and campfire member now gone....
I'm humbled knowing any ONE of these fine people...
