MEMORIAL DAY 2003-#4--"WELCOME HOME!!!!"

5/24/03---but in reality...every day for over 30 years | redrock--and EVERY name on that Black Granite Wall

[Brad’s Gramma]

Oh Redrock, and ALL you Vets...a THANK YOU and an opened arms Welcome Home.

Don't EVER apologize....never ever ever.

[Fawnn]

Beautifully written!

Thank you for sharing.

God bless you. ... And, also: Welcome home!

[Susannah]

Thank you for sharing that, redrock. I wrote to two soldiers in Vietnam and I am ashamed of how most Americans treated our returning brave men.

The following letter was copied from this website>
http://home.earthlink.net/~dearvietnamveteran/dearvietvet5_002.htm

Dear Vietnam Veteran,

I know I should have written much sooner.
I can't say why I did not. Out of fear of admitting to myself you were there, fighting a war. Or maybe ashamed...ashamed that I never accepted the things you felt
you had to do. Whatever it is, I know how it must hurt. Believe me when I say it hurts me more. I have the burden of your hurt plus that of my own...the pain of not
being able to show my true feeling towards you.

I am not writing this for the months you served in Vietnam, but for the many years you were left alone with only your brother Veterans. You served proudly and it went unmentioned.

For a long time I've wanted to express the words an honorable Veteran needs to hear. For a long time I've wanted to hold you during your times of pain. God knows I wanted to. And only He knows why I never found the courage. I do not remember what I used to say...maybe I do not want to remember. All I know is I hope that it is not too late to give you those things now.

For years you tried to be part of my world; doing everything to please me, just to be noticed and given a little time and understanding.

I look back and see the demands I placed on your shoulders when you were young. "Fight your weakness and always show strength to others around you."
Who was I to make such a demand?

I sit here with tears in my heart, finally admitting to myself the one weakness you must have seen in me and never questioned: my inabilitly to say the words that I know would have meant so much to you..."WELCOME HOME! You served your country honorably." Please hear these words now, from my heart. Please give me a chance to be part of your world now. The world I should have been part of long ago.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Welcome home.........................and thank you.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...hope you don't mind.

Not in the least. Not one whit.

Welcome home.

[DLfromthedesert]

Meomorial Day Thank You for Your Service . It was NOT in vain. God Bless You.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thank you redrock.

Welcome Home!

To continue the Pat Conroy article "The Man I Should Have Been" from yesterday....It was 1972, and Conroy was protesting, while Al Kroboth was a prisoner of the Viet Cong.....

~~~~~~

In the meantime, Al and his captors had finally arrived in the North; the Viet Cong traded him to North Vietnamese soldiers for the final leg of the trip to Hanoi. Many times when they stopped to rest, local villagers tried to kill him.

His captors wired his hands behind his back, so he trained himself to sleep in the center of huts when the villagers began sticking knives and bayonets into the thin walls. Following the U.S. air raids, old women would come into the huts to excrete on him and yank out hunks of his hair.

After the nightmare journey of his walk, Al was relieved when his guards finally delivered him to the POW camp in Hanoi, and the cell door locked behind him.

At the camp Al began to die. He threw up every meal and was misidentified as the prison's oldest American soldier because his appearance was so skeletal.

But the extraordinary camaraderies among fellow prisoners caught fire in Al, and did so in time to save his life.

While I was demonstrating in America against Nixon and the Christmas bombings in Hanoi, Al and his fellow prisoners were holding hands under the full fury of those bombings, singing "God Bless America." It was those bombs that convinced Hanoi they would do well to release the American POWs, including my college teammate.

When he told me about the C-141 landing to pick up the prisoners, Al said he felt no emotion, none at all, untill he saw the American flag painted on the plane's tail.

I stopped writing as Al wept over the memory of that flag on that plane, during that time in the life of America.

That same long night, after listening to Al's story, I began to make judgments about my conduct during the Vietnam War.

In the darkness of the sleeping Kroboth household, lying in the third-floor guest bedroom, I began to assess my role as a citizen in the '60s, when my country called my name and I shot her the bird.

~~~~~~~~~

To be continued here tomorrow.....

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

This is so beautiful. Thank you. God Bless

[redrock]

Thank You.....

redrock

[redrock]

This one's a little personal....hope you don't mind.

redrock

[redrock]

This one's a little personal.........hope you don't mind.

redrock

[redrock]

Excellent story....keep 'em comin'.

redrock

[redrock]

"No better medicine. . ."

Just 2 little words...can make all the difference in the world.

redrock

[Right_in_Virginia]

I'm so glad you posted this. The way Americans treated our men and women returning home from Vietnam was shameful.

"Welcome home" is what I've been saying for years to every Vietnam Vet I meet. It's good to know the words may have helped.

Welcome home! And, thank you for serving.

[blackie]

Redrock, it's moving, powerful and very appropriate!

Thanks brother ...we love you!

Molon Labe!

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET


T'was:

HILLARY RODHAM
WALTER CRONKITE
BILL CLINTON
JOHN KERRY

...who fought against FREEDOM and US during the Vietnam War.

...All 4 of them are now involved in putting 1 of their own into our Oval Office in a new -Time of War- in a new Century...

...with an Enemy that is now...

...just around the corner...

...and up your street.


Voter BEWARE.


Signed:..ALOHA RONNIE Guyer / Vet-U.S. 7th Cavalry's Opening Days of the Vietnam War 1965-66

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection
(Photos)


NEVER FORGET

[MeekOneGOP]

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you for your service, redrock...and for sharing your story. Your courage and sacrifice inspired a whole new generation to rise up against those who slandered you in the 60s and 70s.

Welcome home, guys!

We will not forget.

---

Excerpts from Stolen Valor: How The Vietnam Generation Was Robbed Of its Heroes And its History by B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley :

*Part I - Rambo and the Bogus War Heroes 
* Part II - Welcome Home, Babykiller 
* Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up? 
* Part VI - The VVA - The Vietnam Victims of America

[exit82]

Don't mind a bit--now, please turn away while I wipe the tears from my eyes,friend.

[jellybean]

Time passed....and most of us made peace with what we had seen and done. Most of us, in various degrees, put our memories in a safe place...covered over with scabs and scars.

For me...I never talked about those times.I had put those memories in a safe place...guarded with walls.

Hoping the scars heal soon and the walls are lowered a bit more. We all remember or have heard the anti's version. We'd like to hear the real story. Too few are willing to do it...

Welcome Home!