Can't argue over the Vietnam War here... out of the group of 200 I went thru with...199 went to Vietnam, and one
was sent to Ft Lewis instead... so I served, but my ass wasn't on the line..
I have a life long reverence for those that did serve.. my best friend growing up never came home...
on my bended knee. and the sign of the cross.. thank God for those that served and came home alive..
and for the 58,000 who never saw home again alive..may the Good Lord bless them all..
I know a sense of emptiness of seeing military bases closed, which were once bustling places..
As Ranger Green Mentioned, Ft Ord.. never stationed there... but if you've ever been around one Army base
or Air Force base or Marine Corps base.. or Navy... pretty much everything is the same architecture etc..
all designed by the same people... Ft Ord looked as if in a Science Fiction Movie, aliens came down and
just evaporated every one there, and left everything standing.. and it was left to the elements..
Slowly deteriorating in oblivion...
I have a sadness of being any place that was once a military installation and see it being nothing now..
Like even March AFB when I go to see the Air Museum when I am in So California.. drive thru deteriorating
streets, with names still on them, but no buildings.. places that use to be base housing...places like that
I grew up in and around..gone all gone..Any military dependent, no matter what branch of service our parents
served in, or where it was.. it was like we all grew up in the same big town.. and just never knew each other.
But regardless our lives were the same, that civilians would never understand...
Greatest Sadness to me, is the many Air Forces bases that were once so active when I lived over there from
1963 to 1966...Most are pretty much gone.. torn down and handed back over to the civilian world.. bases that
were built in WW 2, and some dating back to WW 1...Air Fields that held huge air armadas, that fought WW2
and then fought the stand down of the Cold War...Skies that were always full of Aircraft, where ever you went..
Places were thousands of men and women served.. just gone... with little remaining of what once stood..
all ghosts towns, torn down by the elements first, then bulldozers...Always gives me a sense of emptiness and
loss...But a sense of pride still remains of being a part of it all..from my youth, as my Dad served his nation for
26 years... and myself for the much shorter time I served... People who all did their jobs, and what they were
trained to do...
Guess it gives us a sense of history, that those who just read about it in the papers, or watched it on the news
on TV, could never understand... the Campfire Trolls are a perfect example of that..
Our military has left 'ghost towns' all over the globe.. places once important.. and now unimportant, that they are
just torn down and a faded memory...
To all those that served in those now Ghost Towns.. a Salute of Respect and wishes for God's Blessings to be upon
you and yours...The Freedoms that so many take for granted in today's society, are clueless of each of your parts
in providing that for them...and to the memories of those forgotten Ghost Towns, where you did so...
Thanks for posting Woody, and to each of our service veterans on the campfire.. Thank you for your service..
and to those that returned home safely, from being in harms way.. Thank God, your sacrifice was your time..
and not your life...
