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Not that you're entitled to know but I was 12 when I attended my favorite cousin's funeral. He went down in a helicopter near Danang. He was a medic who voluntarily left medical school in Austin to serve VN. I dont think the entire country was worth the cost of his life. My uncle died broken hearted and my aunt still hasnt accepted it. Does this answer your question, tough guy?

That's very sad but I think your anger is being transferred to what Hugh Thompson and others did to stop the killing of innocents. I'd like to think your cousin would have done the same thing Hugh did.

Not that you're entitled to know but I was 12 when I attended my favorite cousin's funeral. He went down in a helicopter near Danang. He was a medic who voluntarily left medical school in Austin to serve VN. I dont think the entire country was worth the cost of his life. My uncle died broken hearted and my aunt still hasnt accepted it.

Folks, I'm still taken aback somewhat by the answer I received from DogBarkTree. In that one paragraph much of what Vietnam was about for the US is said. There are the families back home who wait, the follow-on generation who got the images from TV, the lifetime effects on those who lost someone, and the lasting effects on the rest of us.

I went through two tours driving hueys and came home without so much as a physical scratch, but not without scars and, probably, not without survivor guilt.

Feelings get bruised and sometimes rubbed raw while we sit at our keyboards, but nothing that happens on this medium can compare to the real world.

I just want to publicly thank DogBarkTree for saying so much.