Withdrawal
April 30, 1975. Saigon. We’ve been refining the technique ever since with Afghanistan the current culmination of our efforts.
Did they die in vain? Seems so. There’s still a burn deep inside; the fire subsided long ago but every once in a while, an ember starts to glow.
I’ll not go further other than it’s easier to win wars if the politicians that put us into such actually wanted to win.
So, here’s to Paul and Randy and Bill and Jim and all the others I knew and didn’t know.
To those that didn’t come back, to those that did, and especially to those that did but didn’t.
No, I’m not a vet. I got picked in the lottery towards the end, got my physical, was 1A, then got my notice – but Nixon got caught doing something and they changed the call-up. My orders were rescinded. I had a low number but it turned out high enough. Doesn’t mean I didn’t know others my age or so that weren’t so lucky – if that’s what it is.
On the other hand, while the combat troops were at the pointy end of the stick, I spent many years helping put the stick together.
I remember that day, and the days before and after. I was in the 33rd Army Field Hospital in Wurzburg. Laying in the rack with my left leg in traction and my left arm in a cast, and tubes and wires everywhere. I watched a lot of AFN TV over the next couple months.
I was taken with a young nurse named Rhonda from Florida. She wheeled my whole rack from the 3rd floor up to the 5th floor where the theater was and we watched Airport 75. I never saw her again after I left the hospital.
(“Help me Rhonda, yeah….”)
50 years ago I was 5 years removed from an 18 month tour in VN, with a good job, a cute young wife with great legs, and our first child. News was via tv, radio, and newspapers [remember them?]. I followed the NVA offensive province by province and the congressional strangling of supplies for the ARVN. And then all was lost. It was an empty feeling.
Thank you for remembering ‘those who came back but didn’t’.
!
Didn’t intend to be cryptic, but that line hit me. My brother spent three years in Vietnam and went from boy to man; the fight went out of him not three weeks after Gerard’s death. I don’t know how he managed to hold on as long as he did. This is the first I’ve spoken about him to anyone other than my family. Thanks for listening.
Wasn’t cryptic; I couldn’t think of how to reply except an exclamation point. I had a once-close friend that didn’t really return. Lost touch with him in the 80s.
(many scribbles followed – but no, deleted – I won’t go there)
So many young lives lost.
So many young men damaged.
So many mothers, sisters, wives and daughters struggling to understand why those they love were in a foreign land.
Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Sudan.
There is something to be said for Isolationism.
I agree with you, sometimes isolationism seems pretty tempting.
I joined the NG in 1975. In September, which was my 17th birthday. Looking at the TV for 8 or 9 years prior to all this did not impart any wisdom to me, because I was gung ho in spite of the bad coverage of the Vietnam war. I do recall those early army days like it was just yesterday.
Interesting that an F-18 went off the side of a carrier a day or so ago. Brings back the scuttling of the Huey in famous end-of-the-Vietnam-war newsreels. My first look for the news and also for the minerals deal with Ukraine ran into lapses of coverage. It’s amazing how the news is edited these days.
You don’t want me to say it, but conservative news coverage isn’t that thrilled with what is essentially great progress towards an end to the Russo-Ukrainian War. Why is that? You tell me. I did come across the new Trump version of Drudge (the spawn of Satan Drudge Report), and it’s called whitehouse.gov.wire. There are layers of meaning to that. Tax payer news releases directly from the Turmp WH. Why the hell not? After a lifetime of abuse from NPR, I say it’s time to get some payback. Let Trump have his say – it’s only fair and there is a vacuum of news. For instance, his wire news did headline with the minerals deal. It’s a big capital letters FUCKYOU to the media, left side and right side.
“You don’t want me to say it”
What you have to say is one of the reasons I stepped up to provide this site. I’d be happy to put your thoughts up as posts.
I can’t say I was gung-ho but dodging the draft never crossed my mind. I was just old enough that had I gone in, I’d likely of been among the last combat troops; if I recall, 1973 was the last year fresh US troops were put in. I’d have gone in late 71/early 72. Can’t say I regret missing it. I have a cousin that was part of the relief effort at Khe Sanh in 68. He did not recommend the experience.
And I’m terrible in hot and wet (or cold and wet) … and in the woods. I don’t get invited on hunts anymore 🙂
I don’t know why I bother listening/reading the news – it’s all smoke and fluff even if I agree with what I read.
Trump is still surrounded by people with agendas different than his. Not as bad as the first go-around but still there … The fact that so many district level judges are allowed to step out of their lane without a SC or DOJ slap-down is one example.
Thank you, DT. I will stick with NAD.