[AZHua87]

Lee Basnar is the author of the above Editorial Opinion

[AZHua87]

PING

[caisson71]

Though many of us returning from Nam are fortunate enough not to be 100% disabled, the war is still fresh in our minds. The comradship developed in a firefight , being with good men and making it through some harrowing times far outweighs the disgust of being cowardly abandoned by our country.

[mountainlyons]

THANKS

[ThaLeena]

He also wrote a book "Vietnam Vignettes". Excellent book. He was selling them one day at the PX and I bought one, not really thinking that I would read it but more to support the guy. I couldn't put it down, and it still to this day haunts me.

[onedoug]

Thanks. I'll take this with a grain of salt. Though maybe this guy should go back to Vietnam to get some of these bugs out of his system.

[Natural Law]

I served as an 11B40 with the 164th CAG (Combat Air Group) out of Can Tho. Our mission was to secure downed aircraft sites as soon as possible to rescue crew, medivac wounded, retrieve KIAs and deny enemy access to weaponry and munitions, sensitive equipment and information. Most often the LZs were hot and what awaited us was tragic. I know the sacrifices made. I too have friends on the wall and saw too many whose names I don't know, but know are on the wall too.

I know the smell of death; that combination of blood, feces and urine, of burnt meat, of aviation fuel and cordite, and of rotting vegetation, garbage fires and mosquito repellent. I know the smell of my own insides. I was wounded twice, the second time seriously and was medivaced to a Field Hospital in Saigon and then on to the US Army Hospital in the Presidio. I remember having garbage thrown at the hospital bus that took us from Travis AFB to San Francisco and being denied service in a New York restaurant because I was in uniform.

The most painful memory was when I was on a security detail for some congressional VIPs and heard them discussing with some senior brass what constituted an acceptable kill ratio in their pursuit of body count numbers. We weren't just sold out by the academics, the hippies and the Democrats. We were sold out by career officers more interested in brownie points with the Pentagon and their next promotion than the troops. There is plenty of blame to go around. I pray often that God forgives me for not forgiving.