Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Military Vietnam ? No, Vietnam Era....."Oh"

I passed on a furlough to Ireland in '72 for that very reason! ha I figured I had enough Baader-Meinhoff BS right where I was at. Instead I just went home to Texas and fell in love with my future wife! While I was there, Black September killed the Israeli track team in Munich! I came back, thinking I was going to get to use my ticket to the Olympics, but NOOOOO, Had to put on my frogs, get a Unit of Fire and hit guard duty! Army mind screwing...

Maybe this is just a relative kid's opinion, and I completely get where you are coming from in as much as someone who wasn't there can...

But you fellows in Germany were locked and loaded for actual, no schidt, WW3. Nukes and the Red Army coming across the Fulda gap and everything.

That is a pretty dang big deal!!! And by no means unimportant. It didn't turn hot but no one needs me to say it dang sure coulda.

Drove a few miles on a public road today. Cars, trucks, semi's roaring down the road. Didn't get killed, but I could have!

I Thank all for your service.

Haven't been in this section for quite a while...

Jim, like you I am one of those Vietnam Era Veterans...

I had orders for Vietnam and then that changed... was sent to Ft Lewis for more medical training...

ya know, EVERY Vietnam vet I ever spoke to, stating I am sorry I didn't get the opportunity to do my duty over there, their response has ALWAYS been " you didn't miss a damn thing"....

It was decades ago, but I was getting hassled by some leftist do gooder, about not serving in Vietnam.... and that I wasn't really a Veteran Then...
it was at a restaurant in Minneapolis area..... Out of the clear blue, some Marine Corps Vietnam Vet, walked right over and butted into the conversation...

not at me, but the left winger hassling me....

Typical Marine... short and sweet.... along the lines of " Hey Ass Hole.... where did you serve? what were your dates of service.... yeah I thought so.... Well this guy put on the uniform and served his country.. and he did exactly like we all did.... went where we were told to go, did what we were trained and told to do... We all Can't be Rambo.."
Then he turned to me, extended his hand thanking me for my service and I did the same back to him....

The hassler.... he just sort of walked off real quick.... I am pretty sure if he started slinging schitt again, the Marine would have just knocked him on his ass... and it would not have been pretty....

He made a good point... Whoever put on the uniform, has served their country... no matter where or whatever their MOS/ job was...and that is around 1% of our population..
Whoever that 1 % is or was, they are our brothers... we did something the other 99% have never done... served our country....

Thank you for your Service!

Navy, 1967-71. Three 8 month WESTPAC cruises to Vietnam on USS Ranger. I worked on F4 Phantoms on the flight deck and hangar deck. I stayed out of the way during flight ops most of the time but sometimes had to climb up on an airplane on the catapult and flip a switch to the right position to make the radar work right, or some other simple repair. Otherwise it was stay out of the way until the airplanes are all aboard and chained down and then try to fix any broke airplanes quickly so they could launch them next time. It could be dangerous up there, especially at night, but I wasn't getting shot at. What an adventure for a dumb-ass farm kid! I loved the airplanes and all the amazing stuff going on up there, but I wasn't cut out for the military. 4 years of it was all I could take. But I'm a member of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club and the training I got in the Navy started my career as an electronics tech and engineer off very well.

An Army guy and I were walking thru the San Jose airport, both of us in uniform. We had just got off the plane and we had to pass some people who were yelling at us and calling us "baby killers". We just kept going. My ship had garbage dumped down onto the flight deck as we passed under the Golden Gate bridge on one of our trips to Vietnam. But mostly nobody had any idea what we were going thru, and they didn't care. That was disappointing, but it was better than open hostility.

Same as Jim. Volunteer in '71. Vicious basic at Ord and AIT at Ft Sill where high test scores got me pulled from artillery and promoted to E4, acting E5. Regular army cadre with security clearance in all US draftee units filled with drug addicts, gang bangers, criminals, burn outs, and drunks awaiting less than honorable discharges. Twenty eight months in FROG, 3d ID. Three years of honorable service (my whole family served since WW1 and more) where I learned to never trust another human being for the rest of my life, including my superiors. (psychotic page long rant deleted) Details in text were too personal and don't help anyone. I saw the enemy and it was us.

M109 Palladins destroyed my hearing. I have a 100+ decibel high pitched screaming (9-10 KHz) in my ears since I was 20 and always feel like I'm on a rocking boat. I haven't slept much, maybe a couple of hours a night, in 50 years that followed. I never talk about my military experience or all the veteran nastiness after I ETS'd with anyone. I started to write some of it down here and deleted it. Can't keep a relationship even now. I'm honest but blunt, unpredictable, and in-your-face. I will say I hate nonsense, hippies, war protesters, liars, commies, draft dodgers, and the jerks who steal honor equally. I wouldn't wear the color green for the next 30 years. Ask me anything. I just nod and try to work up a smile... I'll never get to sit at the cool kids' table. Oh darn. And I hunt alone.

The HQ where I was stationed is now a shopping center.

Nothing, Saigon fell 30 April 1975.

My old base camp, 8 miles south of the Vietnam DMZ, is now a Chevy dealership.
I guess we won the war after all.

It believe we all served with HONOR...........................................................

I voluntarily enlisted in the Army, and later volunteered for Vietnam.
The way I look at it, anyone who raised their right hand, took the oath, and wore the uniform is my Brother or Sister.
It doesn't matter to me where they served, or when they served. Or in which branch.

Sure, the different branches razz each other, but against outsiders we stand shoulder to shoulder.

I was RA and spent time in Germany and Vietnam. I tried to make the cooks and mechanics my best friends;-)

Haven't looked at this thread in a while.... Never read this post Jim...

Sorry for your loss.. we all walk our own paths.... some of our ends are at the hands of others... some of our ends are poor health, and some of our ends are just we can't mentally and emotionally handle life any more...

I've always believed our end, has been determined by God, before we are ever born.

When we lose those we have know or especially served in the military with, their loss hits home even more than losing one of your family members.. It at least did for me.. so I am not speaking for others...

But I also believe that one day we will be re united with our friends in our lifetime.. and heaven will be, that we are all young and will never grow old, and never have to live in harms way ever again....