In November I was flying back from Atlanta to Philly. There were a couple of GIs on the flight. They were wearing cammies. We always had to wear Class As.
On the way to baggage claim, I was stride for stride with one of the GIs. A man headed in the opposite direction slid over to shake the GI’s hand and said “Thank you for your service. God bless you.” The kid thanked him.
I turned to him and said “That never happened to us.”
“I hear you” he replied.
I am grateful that the country is waking up.
I hear you, Joe.
My one point of pride was during the summer. Liz wanted to go to Navy Pier (a large, formally Navy installation from WWI that has been turned into a combination amusment park, theater district and resturant (read, tourist trap) around here. We wnet, but she wore her white summer uniform (with her new “youngster stripe” shoulder boards.
It turned out that she knew that active duty service people, in uniform, get everything (except for alchoholic drinks and food) free.
I walked behinder her, taking in a Father’s pride.
Then she made me even more proud.
When people would come up to her and shake her hand and thank her for her service, she would say, “I am not an officer, yet, I am only a midshipman. But I want to thank you for your support. We should be thanking the public for supporting us, so well.”
Nam times vs. Al-Quieda. “The times, they are a changin”.
Now, if we can only keep this perspective instead of alowing the ACLU to have these murderers “tried” according to Miranda rules with high priced lawyers.
That would be the best thanks to our best and brightest.
I posted this in 2010. Now four years later our American servicemen and women are still dying.
I say this prayer 2 to 3 times per day each and every day.
God, please bless our American servicemen and women throughout the world. Most especially those serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries where people would seek to harm them.
Please grant them; clarity of vision, clarity of mind, quick physical reactions, and the ability to recognize people who would seek to harm them.
Please provide them with good cold drinks and hot food that tastes good. Please provide them with a warm, safe, and comfortable place to sleep where they won’t be in fear of, or in danger of losing their lives.
In your name we pray Amen.
The same for me which is fine, I didn’t serve to be thanked.
Yes this country is waking up but it still has a long way to go, but I will leave politics’s aside for today.
This is Memorial Day and so I will remember friends and family and others that died in service and Thank them for our freedom as I do everyday.
Happy Memorial Day to all that have served this Country.
thanks for sharing, frank. every time you see one of those guys with the USS…ball caps, or a veteran license plate, just walk over extend your hand for a shake and say thanks for your service, it means a lot.
Thank you Frank.
Hi Mike!
I remember my two different homecomings… Although the first one took place in December 1968 and the second one took place in June 1969 Both of them were “the same” … I and my fellow Vietnam veterans received a Home Coming that is a LOT different than what takes place today.
Here is what I wrote on another thread.
http://www.nachi.org/forum/f2/hamburger-hill-memorial-day-observance-91525/#post1189798](http://www.nachi.org/forum/f2/hamburger-hill-memorial-day-observance-91525/#post1189798)
When I arrived back in the United States I was called a “Baby Killer and Village Burner”!
[/QUOTE]
Originally Posted by dbowers
**I really envy the guys today when I see people walking up to a 25-35 year old vet or soldier somewhere and thanking him / her for their service. I and most of my friends didn’t get that lucky in the 70’s.
[/QUOTE]
*
At San Francisco international Airport there were a group of hippies who gave me a real hard time.
There were yelling and chanting… “Hey, Hey, Green Beret, What Cha Got to Say”!
One group raised their fists in the air and shouted “Baby Killer!”
The other part of the group raised their fists in the air and shouted “Village burner!”
This went on, and on, and on! It drew the attention of a lot of people and not a single person came to my defense!
{I went to Southeast Asia in December 1966. I did two tours with the 1st Special Forces Group without a leave.
This happened to me at the gate of the Oakland Army base and at the SF airport in December 1968 and June 1969.}
[/QUOTE]
Originally Posted by dbowers
When I got discharged and started college, we had a bunch of the college kids trying to hammer us vets that way also UNTIL one day several of us vets on school boxing or judo team gave a live demonstration of angry vets going nutsy on school hippies in the school cafeteria one day … After that they looked bad but stayed away from hassling us.[/END QUOTE]
*
THE ESCALATOR STORY
As I was about to get on the escalator at SF airport ….One particularly ugly, smelly, gap-toothed frizzy long haired hippie got right in my face!
This ugly, smelly, gap-toothed long haired hippie kept slobbering all over me yelling “Baby killer, Village burner, Baby killer!”
Once this nasty, smelly hippie put their hands on me I lost it! I reached back with my fist and punched** HER** in the face as hard as I could…
I laughed as she rolled down the escalator:mwa-hah:\:D/
*{The “Escalator Story” is a “joke” that the majority of my friends told me when they came back from R&R. The “bigger and stronger” the Green Beret telling the story was what made this story all the more funnier. *
NOTE: I’m sorry to say that the shouting and chanting of “Baby Killer/Village Burner” is a true story and actually happened to me and to the majority of my friends.}
The 60’s were before my time, I didn’t live it. It’s a shame that the same folks proud of their freedom chastised those who provided it. I’m glad things (for the most part) have changed with regard to the attitude towards those (service men/women) that really give up more than most folks understand. Its a huge commitment, for many people we never even knew. Now a days its 100% volunteer too we have no draftees, hard to imagine getting drafted, going to war, then coming home to ungrateful people like that.
Thanks.