Lest we forget....Veteran`s Day

[RONALDDOBBS]

Bobby, your generation went through so much, most not good. My Wife and I started the first pizza parlor in my home town here in Oklahoma. I witnessed first hand the attitudes of the students. Lots, lots of peer pressure. The music changed. My whole world changed. I had been to Viet-Nam and was trying to keep up with the War and still keep the business going. We made it. 30 years running an independent pizza shop. Bobby, you pulled through. Lots of them didn`t. I am new in this community but not too new that I know you are the straw that stirs the drink. Keep the faith.

[Cubs48]

I'm a U.S Navy vet ( and retired police officer-CPD) serving from 6 Feb 1967 - 31-Oct 1970...lost my best friend Patrick Cassidy USMC who was killed Dec.18,1967 in Viet Nam when his jeep ran over a land mine on his way to a Bob Hope show (killing all 4 marines aboard)...I found out about it aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangi-La on Christmas Eve 1967 while we were docked in Naples,Italy which although it was almost 38 years ago I can remember like yesterday...my heart goes out to all vets and their families who have lost loved ones... and my gratitude to all who have served the greatest country on earth. :)

[Maxie Minoso]

Each Veterans Day this message is reposted on a Cleveland Indians message board and I thought I would share it with you. It was in response to another poster's message of gratitude.
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"You know, the thought occurs to me, that we as a nation have come a long long way from the tumultuous days of the late 1960's when this nation was so divided. And especially 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive in S. Vietnam. During pitched combat in May of that year, with the NVA in the I Corps sector of S. Vietnam, I was severely wounded by a shell fragment from an NVA Soviet made 82mm mortar round. That same mortar round killed several of my fellow Marines. It was a very intense scene, where I lost good friends that I cared about. I will never forget that night, so long as I live.

But I pride myself on being a tough old bird and I survived the "fist sized" chunk of shrapnel that ripped into me. I was flown home as soon as the Doctors at NSA DaNang, felt I could handle the long trip home in a C-141 Starlifter of Military Airlift Command. Following a year of rehabilitation in the Bethesda, Md Naval Hospital and then the Cleveland VA Medical Center, I was finally recovered sufficiently from my wounds to get out and go someplace other than the VA hospital canteen.

So one sunny weekend, my fiancee and I decided to go visit an Akron Mall. This was in the Spring of 1969. It was the first time I'd put on my Marine Corps Dress Blue uniform in over two years. I felt great pride surge through me as I wrestled myself into the dress blue tunic. We left early and got to the Mall where we had a pleasant day shopping for things that we felt we'd need after we were married soon. After awhile, we stopped to take a little breather and sip on cokes in the center of one of the aisles in this mall.

While resting on one of the benches centered in these aisles, a young man and his friend approached us slowly. Both guys wore long flowing hair to their shoulders and cutoff levi jackets, headbands. They were also adorned with other various accoutrements that one would usually associate with the peace movement of that period. They saw me and stopped and asked me if I had been hurt in Vietnam (I was in a wheelchair then, so it was fairly obvious). I responded yes, at Phu Bai, S. Vietnam, with the 3rd Marine Division in combat with North vietnamese regulars. At that point the taller one of the two said "well, you know, it serves you right, man" ..then he spat on my uniform and they laughed and walked away.

The rage and fury that grew within me at that moment was tempered only by my fiancee's teary eyed pleas of "just let them go, Lee, let them go"..as she held on to my tunic tightly..for her, I did let them go, unchallenged.....I turned the other cheek and that might have been the most difficult moment of my life. Marines don't turn the other cheek easily. You've no doubt heard similar stories from other Vietnam Veterans. Spitting on uniforms must have been an "in thing" to do for some people in the late 60's...I don't know.

In any case, that happened on April Fool's day, 1969. Today, on Veterans Day 1999, thirty years down the road, you offer me and veterans like me, your Thanks. I received a beautiful lettter from a young lady who attends a catholic high school locally. It expresses similar sentiments. I must write her back tonight too. Times have truly changed, Randy. On behalf of myself and all veterans, Thank you so much for your sentiment of gratitude. It is deeply appreciated, probably more than you realize, by me and veterans like me everywhere.

And to the Marines who risked their lives for me that night in S. Vietnam, by leaving the safety and cover of a fortified bunker, to come into harm's way and drag me out of that mortar barrage...wherever you guys may be today, you have my eternal gratitude.

Lee Miller

United States Marine Corps Retired Hug a veteran - Preferably me"

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My thoughts today have been with Lee, who died four years ago as a result of that Vietnam wound, and the many others I have known over the years. Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice are the common bond of those who serve and have served us so well.

Maxie

[modmark46]

Man, that story brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for sharing.

[bkeat23]

Thanks to allayouse for sharing the stories.

And a hearty salute and thanks to all those that went before me and gave the Ultimate Sacrifice, and those that followed.

Sort of like Geezer, I feel my 4 years (77-81) of peactime service is feeble compared to others, so I'm more comfortable shaking a hand of an old guy and telling him thanks than I am consdiering Veterans Day my own.

My Pops, (Mom's Dad) was on an LST in the Pacific in the early 40's. He got blown of the ship along with others when a kamikaze hit them amidships. Blew part of his back out, he had to wear what I think is a truss the rest of his life. Looks like a girdle, but only above the waist. didn't stop him from handyman work around the neighborhood, including fixing roofs.

He died in 1992, and 6 month before that there was a crew reunion in Canton OH. He lived in NJ and I lived in MI. He flew in for a visit, and I drove him down for his weekend. I hung out for a while before heading back, and the stories those guys told would each make a great action hero movie. Pops never talked about the War, until then. I loved the man dearly my entire life, but my respect and admiration for him grew a thousand times in those few hours. All of those old men were freakin' superheroes.

People of his generation thought they went off to save the world.

I don't think they were wrong.
I miss Pops a lot.

[RONALDDOBBS]

Your Dad was in the starting lineup of the Greatest Generation. They did save the world. God Bless your Dad.

[modmark46]

I agree. My father saw action on Guadlecanel and Bogainville (sp?), among other places in WW2. He only talked about any of his war experiences twice, once when he was really drunk, and the other time the night he found out I had joined the Marines. WW 2 may have been the last "noble" (if the use of the word is not out of place in this context) conflict this world will ever see, and I too think people of that generation DID save the world. RIP Dad, and all vets who did, and do, answer the call to serve their country.