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Thursday, April 30, 23:50:20 [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

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Date Posted: Thu, Jun 25 2020, 18:00:25 PDT
Author: Don Poss
Author Host/IP: cpe-104-173-58-12.socal.res.rr.com / 104.173.58.12
Subject: Vietnam 25 June 1965 - DEROS 1966

Gents, 58 years ago today, 25 June 1962, I enlisted in the Air Force, "guaranteed" Air Police. Never regretted it. DEROS'd from Da Nang RVN in 25 June 1966. Never regretted that either:)

Best thing was the lasting friendships that followed me home, and there are the not so friendly memories of Vietnam. Greatest gift to me was when Al Watts gave me Blackie 129X as my K-9 Sentry Dog. Blackie really was the best dog in country, although other puppy-pushers might dispute that (but in their heart of hearts, deeeep down they know the truth). Longest Day was when JB (James Bruce Jones) was KIA. Best friend, Gary Eberbach (RIP 2017), whom I introduced to his wife, Rita, who actually stayed married to him for over 50 years. Never played match-maker again. The VA once asked if I could flip a magic switch and make it all go away...would I? No. And No again. Its hard to say if the good and bad of Vietnam balance out. Not really, I think...different scales. Besides, to just erase Vietnam would mean that I would never have known all the above, nor the importance of VSPA in my life. And if that means a few dreams that kick one in the tail and front-side, then there's that. Knowing what I know today, would I go back to Vietnam and all that represents? I'm just glad that's a hypothetical question; and a tough one. The answer revolves around a coward government that is spineless enough to waste 58,000 young men and women and bugging out like LBJ and his herd...just as government also killed all of the K-9 at war's ending, except for fewer than 200, and left the rest in Vietnam; and when the same military and government decided riding horses in to battle was no longer of value, ordered them machinegunned in pits by the thousands. So. The real question is whether I would stand up for my country should the socialists take power? then, yes. But today at almost 76 I'm too dang old to realistically to take to the field without my cane and Su-M-T-W-Th-F-Sa pharmacy duffel-bag. There are other ways men of our generation can serve, even in times of peace (when was that, I missed it).

Melancholy day ... and so many decades have passed since Vietnam, and too few in the future.

Don Poss (Okay...I'm over it now: bowl of bugs anyone? :)

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