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As a former Vietnam Veteran {67-68} I want to thank all those who served. Let's all remember those who didn't return, as well as those who serve now. They answered our great nations call, let's keep them in our prayers!
Karl

Karl,
Welcome home brother, I want to second your thoughts. We did what our nation told us they needed us to do.
Mike Ford, 36th Engineer Battalion (Const.), 34th Engineer Group, 20th Engineer Brigade, US Army Engineer Command, Republic of Viet Nam, 1970, and proud of it.

No mater what country you come from on this blue Planet War seems not far in the past and in many times not far in the future, it touches all of us in one way or another. I have always thought that these few lines penned by John Maxwell Edmunds described those who only come home in other peoples memories.

When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.

Ernie

55 years since I arrived for my second tour and VN is still on my mind. Tracing the routes on google earth I once knew so well, the highway from Ban Me Thout to Ban Don and the back country trails for 40 km around that camp on the Dar Lac Plateau,
Ban Don (Trang Phuc)


the road from Kontum to Pleiku and out to Ben Het and on to the tri-border, Highway 14 from FOB-2 down to Pleiku, Highway 14 from Kontum up to Dak Pek - show a different country. I won't go back until the regime changes.

Gene,
I've heard that Vietnam has become a tourist destination, I can't even imagine that. Upon my return, I was spit on in San Francisco and couldn't even get a cab. I'm glad some of those things have changed. For some time after I was ashamed, no more! I always remember those I knew who didn't make it back.
Bless us all!
Karl

U.S. Army, 1 November 1967 to 31 October 1969. As a young guy trying to live on $131 to $145 a month with no quarters or rations allowance, I spent some time hitching rides and riding buses to and from stateside posts and home. I have to admit that I never experienced any disrespectful behavior from civilians, young or old. Maybe it was a West Coast thing.

Attending yesterday’s Army Airborne Graduation was very special, especially as I heard more about the rigorous path it took for these young soldiers, Marines, and sailors to get there. The class started with over 400 participants, all volunteers for this effort, and whittled down to only just over 300 that could finish. Sailors working towards BUDS, young soldiers just out of Basic, Special Ops guys from both the Army and Marines, with almost all being extraordinarily motivated and athletic, all worked together towards their goal of earning that Airborne medal and exclusive distinction. About 10% of the mix were officers and a few females earned it as well. Almost all were exhausted and pounded both physically and emotionally at the end. Many were headed immediately afterwards to US military bases around the world.
My son-in-law is currently in Civil Affairs, has spent a year away from home in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Iraq, and also was on the 9/11 prosecution team in Guantanamo. He’s a federal prosecutor on the side.
Hearing the graduates chant the Airborne Creed in unison and their commitment to their potentially isolated level of combat was stirring.
It was a special day, while also emotionally rewarding to know that there are men and women like these that have volunteered to protect our country and stand the watch.











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Thank you for your service. I have been to the wall and found too many names for friends and classmates who went but never returned. And a few who ought to be on the wall because they were much diminished in their return and short lives afterwards. Thanks for all who serve and served

Thank you to all Vietnam vets, and all other vets, too. I served during the Vietnam War, but not in a combat zone. My hat's off especially, to all who "saw the elephant".

I will pray a special prayer tomorrow morning for all Vietnam vets.

Welcome Home!

101st Abn Div, 1968-69

Back when I was an Assistant Scoutmaster in a local Boy Scout troop, we would take the troop down to Charleston, SC, to spend a weekend on the USS Yorktown every year. One of our requirements was the troop had to view the film that was shown to all the ship's visitors. In that film is a segment showing a squadron of American dive bombers taking off from a carrier with only enough gasoline in the planes to go one way....not enough gasoline to come back. The entire ship crew was on deck saluting each plane as they left the carrier. I cried like a baby.....every time I watched it.

Thank you all for your service

kind thoughts and admiration to all who did their duty and served, suffered and sacrificed in all wars...

From a Vietnam era vet who was never in country: I salute all vets who were. Spending significant time in uniform in a college town in the late Vietnam years, I witnessed way too much disrespect for vets and for those in uniform. About the only place in town one could feel comfortable going to have a drink in uniform was the American Legion post. What a breath of fresh air it is to hear people say "Thank you for your service" when I'm wearing something that identifies me as a vet.

This week I happen to be back in the small town where I grew up and graduated high school in 1967. It’s a solemn time of remembering those years and the turmoil. Grateful thanks today to all who served in Viet Nam. Standing in silence for Dave (Marine) who died there on a trail known only to God.

(from Rhode Island)
https://www.providencejournal.com/s...h-29-a-chance-to-say-thanks/70046067007/

Camp Eagle??

Some gave all, all gave some.

US Army,

Cam Ranh Bay, November 1967-December 1968.

1/501, LZ Sally-Hue to A Shau Valley

A Shau Valley was a bad A$$ place. A Shau Special Forces A-camp there was overrun in early '66. Air Force Spad pilot got the MoH landing his A-1 Skyraider on the short airstrip to pick up a downed pilot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_A_Sau

When I arrived in July 1966, I spent two weeks in 5th SFG Hqs in Nah Trang before being sent to Ban Me Thout, then on the Ban Don A-233. By chance the debriefing files on all the SF men who exiled from the camp where filed in a dust strewn cabinet where I was supposed to "work." The stories were amazing.

damascus,
That is really moving. It made me immediately think of my uncle who was lost on IWO JIMA, 19 days after I was born. He gave his today for my tomorrow. I can remember seeing my dad crying and asking him "what is the matter?" and he would answer " I was thinking about Dwight." We should think often about those that gave us their todays.
Mike

"Airborne"! All the Way Sir!
I got my Jump Wings in the spring of 1972--headed to the 82nd and FT Bragg, we wore the C*** Cap dress headgear with Glider patch until "they" made us switch to maroon berets! We DID NOT like them!

Spring, from a "leg", please tell your son-in-law, that we appreciate his service.

L.Brown, During the post Viet Nam confusion converting the "Draft" Army to the Volunteer Army they did many things designed to make it seem they were keeping their promises. They held illegally constituted promotion boards to "pass over" officers after they had already "Riffed" the number they said they would limit the "Rif" to and wanted to make more reductions (at least courts intervened). When they couldn't support what decided to do, other times, they would set up a "test" and structure it to show what they had already decided was in the "best interest of the government". They converted many Military "slots" to "civilian" and changed "Construction" Engineer Battalions to "Combat Heavy", in order to improve the perception of the " tooth to tail" ratio. Instead of saving money over all, it cost more, but the additional costs were in different "appropriations". It was mostly smoke and mirrors. It is the same after every war.
Mike

Spring, you have every reason to be proud. These days, an ever smaller percentage of the population raise their hands, swear the oath, and put on the uniform. I was an Army Reserve officer in the 90's, witnessing Clinton's cuts in the military. First the Active side, then both the Army Reserve and the National Guard . . . and we were supposed to make up the slack for the Active Army cuts. After Vietnam, the Pentagon brain trust swore that we would never again go to war without calling up the Guard and the Reserve. When Clinton ordered us to play peacekeepers in Bosnia--a relatively small mission in the mid-90's--the cuts on the Active side were deep enough that they couldn't even handle that without the Guard and the Reserve. An Army Reserve Military Intelligence battalion from the Detroit area participated in the Bosnia mission. Then returned home to learn that their unit was being inactivated. We needed them then, but we were sure enough we wouldn't need them in the future to get rid of them? Must make sense to someone. I couldn't see the logic in it.

Spring,
Congratulations to you and your Son-in-Law, a very well deserved and proud moment for both of you! The photos are very touching as well. God speed!
Karl