Veteran’s Day

Veteran’s Day

We graduated West Islip in 1965. A few of us went to Stony Brook University. A classmate recently asked: “Isn't it strange how other people at that time took similar experiences and became anti-war activists? Did you ever wonder why you didn't? What was different about your experience that kept you from joining the mainstream at Stony Brook who were protesting the war?”

Are you asking, "Why wasn't I an antiwar protester?" The direct answer to your question is, I believed in the individual’s right to freedom. I still do. And it is worth fighting for when you understand the alternate is totalitarianism in today’s guise of terrorism.

In the thirty years that have passed since I served in VN, there have been some good times. If I were able to talk to the boys I grew up with, played stickball and baseball with, and who are no longer here, I'd talk about those times. And I am sure we would talk about baseball.

I don't think I'd tell them that one newspaper columnist described VN veterans as "either suckers or psychos, victims or monsters." Nor would I tell them the secretary of defense they fought for back then has now declared that he was not a believer in the cause for which he assigned us to our destiny. I wouldn't tell them about a draft-age kid from Arkansas who hid out in England to dodge his duty while we were fighting and dying eventually became commander-in-chief. And I wouldn't tell them we lost that lousy war. I can't even tell them we were winning when I left.

My friend, who was the quarterback of our high school football team, has written about his visit to “the wall” in Washington. I too visited "the wall". I remember taking a step back and trying to view the entire work. I tried to wrap my mind around the violence, carnage and ruined lives that war represents. I didn't have that knowledge when we attended college. I doubt that those who protested, with all respect toward their idealism, knew. I believe they cared only about themselves.

I don't feel it necessary to justify to a newspaper columnist that VN veterans have been productive members of society since we left VN. I am proud that I answered the call, and I am proud of my friends - heroes who voluntarily, enthusiastically gave their all. They demonstrated no greater love to our nation. If I could communicate with them, I'd want them to know that God, Duty, Honor and Country will always remain the noblest calling. Revisionist historians and elite draft dodgers trying to justify their own actions will not change that.