I’ve received the following video from many of my fellow veterans so thought I should include it here on our Spur blog, but have some mixed emotions myself.
It would have meant far more to me 42 years ago. What say you? [I’ve elaborated further in the comment section] – Bear
On Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, President Obama acknowledged that the Vietnam veteran was not treated well when we returned home and that we should start telling our stories to preserve our history for future generations.
On June 3rd, the Seattle Times printed a opinion piece entitled, “Legend of the spat-upon Vietnam veteran”. My take on the piece was that Mr. Sirota was unhappy that the President had mentioned the treatment some received when coming home and it was his duty to show that such never happened, that it was all some giant conspiracy by Vietnam veterans and the right-wing war mongers to spread false rumors which would ultimately silence future war protests.
I call that completely delusional. I guess we somehow organized 40-years back via some mysterious, underground veteran fax network and were smart enough to know it would silence future war protests in wars we could not foresee.
Some of us attempted to share a small part of what we experienced when we came home. We were immediately attacked as liars and our personal observations dismissed. Many of the comments were hateful -- some even being pulled -- and I learned firsthand that there are many here in the Northwest that hate us today as much as they despised us when we came home.
The good news is that the Seattle Times posted letters they received from veterans that found the opinion piece insulting and mine was included. Read; Letters to the Editor, June 5th 2012.
My point, while the video above is a honest effort to acknowledge our service, in truth after my experience with many comments from readers of the Seattle Times, very little has really changed in 42 years.
By the way, Mr. Sirota was not born until after the war…
PS. In the “letters to the editor” mentioned above is a letter from Sarah Blum. Sarah served as an Army Surgical Nurse at the 12th Evac at Cu Chi from ’67 to ’68.
Pam and I know Sarah and she is anything but a war monger. She is a wonderful lady that has done very much for the veterans in our area and worked at many local veteran stand downs. She’s been back to Vietnam several times to help the children there. Like most of us, she hates war.
If it wasn’t for the Viet Nam Vet, the Soldiers today wouldn’t have the “Welcome Home” or the “Thank You for Your Service”. WE are the ones who started it for THEM!!!! They, in turn, are thanking us.
I get more ‘Thank You for your Service’ from the younger generation. Most have friends or relatives in the service now.
(Some say, ‘You were treated bad, and I’m sorry’. I tell them ‘That is not enough’ and hold out my hand. They shake my hand and thank me for my Service. I say ‘That is still not enough’. The look a little puzzled, And when I open up my arms, they ALL smile and give me a hug. ‘That is enough.’ [One in particular, I remember. A young girl on the General Jackson Tour boat. Some of you might remember her. She was finding people to sell them the pictures.])
Great post. I’m dealing with a few of these issues as well..