Nuff Said!!

[Up In Smoke]

I really enjoy the sentiments I've read here and have been generally impressed with most citizens of today in how they support our troops. Sure wish it could have been like this when I (we) came back from Vietnam many years ago.

Welcome home Wildcat.
Thank you, and God Bless!

[KyNola]

Jerry said it best.  Welcome home Wildcat.

[hal4uk]

I really enjoy the sentiments I've read here and have been generally impressed with most citizens of today in how they support our troops. Sure wish it could have been like this when I (we) came back from Vietnam many years ago.

Hey, Wildcat...
THANK YOU.
I appreciate your service.
Awrighten.

[3rensho]

Sure wish it could have been like this when I (we) came back from Vietnam many years ago.

I echo your sentiments.  I was spit on and called "baby killer".  Good that things have changed

[Wildcat]

Sure wish it could have been like this when I (we) came back from Vietnam many years ago.

I echo your sentiments.  I was spit on and called "baby killer".  Good that things have changed

Exactly 2rensho.

Thanks guys, but I was not looking for individual attention. I was simply reflecting about citizen attitudes over different time periods. I think everyone who has served, especially those who served in combat zones (and in particular those who served in actual combat) deserve all of our appreciation - regardless of the popularity or the final outcome of the war.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Wildcat and 3rensho, my hat is off to both of you.  Many thanks for your service.  i truly wish you had not suffered the disgraceful indignities that you did.  Hopefully, times have changed, permanently.

I never served, I am not a vet.  My father was and he was my hero.  At the end of his second year of college he enlisted in the Army in the summer of 1942.  Ten months later he was offered OCS and Engineers school.  After all the training he was off to the Pacific as part of as an officer in a  combat engineers group - New Guinea to the Phillipines - for a bit over two years. He came back with a couple of ribbons and three battle stars.  When he was released he did another eight years in the Reserves.  As I was growing up I wanted to hear all the war stories.  He wouldn't talk, hardly a peep, unless I got him really mad and then he a would shout out a comment in anger shedding only a colorful and extreme highlight of one of the more atrocious events he had witnessed.  The couple of times that happened the comment left me chilled and awestruck. I soon learned not to ask.  He was both proud and at the same time very private about his service.  I never heard him bring it up to anyone, and if asked he would answer but try to cut it off quickly. That was always a bit perplexing for me.

Later, when I pressed him several times on why he signed up and served he always had the same simple answer -- so you and others like you won't need too.  It was his most heartfelt value - he did not want to see America's kids have to endure what he witnessed.  Thoughout his life he did everything he could to dissuade me from joining the armed forces, not because he was opposed to the mission but simply because he was hopeful that it wouldn't be necessary for his son.  Through his friends who had shared an experience similar to his I often saw the same value - for our children, never again.

Our Veterans are the most unselfish and giving people I know. 

[Wildcat]

He was both proud and at the same time very private about his service.  I never heard him bring it up to anyone, and if asked he would answer but try to cut it off quickly. That was always a bit perplexing for me.  

The best I can explain is that actual combat can only be experienced. It is simply impossible, and sometimes too painful, to attempt to explain it and get the true impact across. War is a terrible waste but sometimes necessary. Most of the stories you have heard do not come from the actual combatants, but rather anothers interpretation of a report, or someone in a combat zone passing on what he/she heard about a unit or individual that was actually in the combat. Some of these people actually tell their friends and families back home that it was what they personally experienced. I would guess that at least 70 percent of the stories you heard were from support personnel passing it on or at least an interpretation of a report that was filed.

[TestRocket]

With tiers in my eyes I too thank both of you Wildcat and 3rensho for your service to our great nation. And I also give thanks all that have served and especially to those in harms way this very day! God Bless!

[Quarlow]

No matter who you are or where you come from you cannot go threw life without this touching you in some way. I often do not agree with the reason for war, but I will always support those who stand for our freedoms. My father never served (there was no need in his days), my grand fathers were not fit to serve or they would have (one grew up with polio, the other had been shot in leg by a train conductor when he was 15 while riding the rails to find a better life) but they signed up and would have gone if they had been capable. But they did serve in the shipyards in Vancouver. They actually worked together and knew each other well before my mom and dad got together but they never saw each other again after till mom and dad met.  I tell you that video brings tears to my eyes. If I ever witnessed disrespect for a servicemen you can bet I would likely end up in jail and proudly. Be they from Canada or USA or any were in this world, those who put their lives on the line deserve to be treated with the most respect, cause you can bet that some of them don't agree with the reasons but they put themselves out there on the line for us and every unborn human that will come along in the future and for what, they are not looking for heroship status but they would like to be treated like every other human on the planet. They are just regular people who care more for the lives of everyone in the free world and for those that don't know anything other than oppression and pain than they do for themselves and that in it's self makes them HERO'S. Amen and God bless. Lest we forget, We will never forget.