["Captain D"]

I wish to extend my thanks to all who served and are serving...
I especially wish to Thank those who gave their All...

 

[jpr1968]

Thanks Capt. I'm sure all vets and active duty appreciate the gratitude. Cool hearse.

 

["Captain D"]

Finding posts on facebook this morning, I am grateful...

Unable to serve, while Y`all were, but I support Vets!

It takes one to know... US Military Vets MC supporter

 

[gregtheginn]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[wulfenstien]

Thank you Captain D. I make sure to thank a vet and active duty service member when I see one.

 

[Ramie]

It was an honor to serve, in my time they hated us when we came home. I so glad to know most now recognize and honor those who do.

 

["Captain D"]

I have a special place in my heart for those who served during the Viet Nam war...
I was turned down when I answered my draft call...
Y`all got a "Raw Deal" when returning home from the war objectors...
Being in the graduating class of 1971, I am the same age and have friends & family who served...

I have had the emotional experience/pleasure to assist in set up of the "Traveling Wall Memorial" and "Escort" Ride Home, several years running...

Isn`t the "permanent" wall at our capitol?

 

[bodasefus]

Thanks Captain D... We were all just doing out bit... did 9 tours in country and almost 30 years... No regrets but lots of nightmares,,, still I would do it all ofer again for my country... Army - MOS 18E with a Bravo assessment...

 

[MikeB]

I think most vets, even Vietnam-era vets, look back on their service with pride and satisfaction, but sometimes even with nostalgia for the close friendships and life-changing experiences they had. I know I do.

But I wonder about the dimensions of the oft-described hostility toward vets coming home from VN. I got back from my SEA tour in June of '71 and encountered nary a negative word from anybody. The grateful State of Ohio even gave me a $500 VN veterans bonus which I blew immediately as partial payment for a band-new Suzuki TS-250 Savage 2-stroke enduro.

Thus began my downfall. But I can't blame it on the war.:mrgreen:

 

[pastordave1]

I have a special place in my heart for those who served during the Viet Nam war...
I was turned down when I answered my draft call...
Y`all got a "Raw Deal" when returning home from the war objectors...
Being in the graduating class of 1971, I am the same age and have friends & family who served...

I have had the emotional experience/pleasure to assist in set up of the "Traveling Wall Memorial" and "Escort" Ride Home, several years running...

Isn`t the "permanent" wall at our capitol?

Thanks, there's a permanent wall here in NM also, plan on going there this Memorial day, they have a big biker event every year. I served but after the war and before the next one, USMC, and my son is now serving in the Army Reserves.

 

[Lonnie_Mac]

Thanks Cap!!

I keep my military experiences close to me...

Not long ago though, we buries a close friend of mine in one of these things. Drove him for miles with hundreds of motorcycles in procession. Just days after he opened for ZZ Top. RIP Mean Gene Kelton.

 

[espearly]

Thanks capt D. My family all went to college, I went into the Navy. Oh well they sure missed a lot��.

 

["Captain D"]

May He ride with us!

 

[John Hopkins]

Vietnam was an unwinding experience for me, I had just come out of the British army after being involved with the KAR revolt in Kenya and then being posted to Aden in Yemen which was quite hairy.. I got back to Britain and every time I passed someone who looked like the ones I had been fighting I felt twitchy, I think they have a medical name for it now, anyway I signed up on an oil tanker and did three trips supplying the US armed forces in Vietnam, Danang, Cam rahn bay and some other place I can't remember, I've probably spelt the other two wrong..

The point is, it was a beautiful country, the colourful bombs exploding on the nearby shore at the DMZ and the jets flying overhead seemed to add to the pleasure of relaxing on deck at night, and when I finally got home all my twitchiness had gone.

I would be very embarrassed if someone thanked me for any of the things I have done, you either did them or you did something else.. I mean what do you answer.

John.

 

[pastordave1]

May He ride with us!

Amen!

 

[sjef]

Thanks Capt. It's nice to see people appreciate what the military does today. When we got back to San Francisco in 73 we were treated like criminals. I think people back then were pretty messed up, too much acid and what they called love. These guys coming back today deserve the thanks they get. It's nice to see people thanking a vet, even though we never got thanks it makes you feel good to see it today.

 

["Captain D"]

Thank YOU

Thanks Capt. It's nice to see people appreciate what the military does today. When we got back to San Francisco in 73 we were treated like criminals. I think people back then were pretty messed up, too much acid and what they called love. These guys coming back today deserve the thanks they get. It's nice to see people thanking a vet, even though we never got thanks it makes you feel good to see it today.

I extend a personal Thank you to you for your service...
In speaking with some veterans recently and hearing that the Viet Nam Vets were Shunned is in part, the reason for this thread...

Thank You for our freedom

 

[ARH]

I extend a personal Thank you to you for your service...
In speaking with some veterans recently and hearing that the Viet Nam Vets were Shunned is in part, the reason for this thread...

Thank You for our freedom

USAF paid for me to go to college. The school warned me not to tell anyone I was military. There was that much anti military sentiment on campus at UW in the 60's.

 

[MikeB]

I don't mean to belabor this but.....

In June of '71 I DEROS'd and processed out at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA. I had a friend from my undergraduate days who was getting a PhD in French lit at Cal, so I took a bus over to see her. I walked across the campus at UC BERKELEY wearing my class A uniform and carrying a duffle bag over my shoulder. At no time did anyone as much as scowl at me -- I encountered no hostility whatever in this epicenter of anti-war sentiment. I met a number of my friend's friends over the next few days and the most anyone had to say about my service was to offer their sympathy that I went. They hated the war all right, but that did not extend to me or as far as I could tell to any other poor sap who went.

After that I returned to Ohio and enrolled in a graduate program at the U of Toledo, and likewise encountered nothing resembling hostility, even though I made no effort to conceal the fact that I was a vet. And I know a number of VN vets, all of whom firmly believe this urban myth of hostility toward our number, but I have never heard EVEN ONE first-person anecdote of an actual hostile act. This is not to say that some did not receive bad treatment of some kind, but the story of general hostility seems to me one of those things that gains acceptance through repetition rather than reality.

So you will pardon me if I think a lot of these stories of bad treatment of Vietnam vets are greatly exaggerated or completely apocryphal. If Brian Williams had been one of us I'll bet he would have lots of stories about being spit upon. Maybe even beat up.:mrgreen:

I know this is not important to most readers here, but I just want to set the record straight as I see it. The "Cult of Victimization" so popular in this country doesn't need another chapter.

 

[jpr1968]

I don't mean to belabor this but.....

In June of '71 I DEROS'd and processed out at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA. I had a friend from my undergraduate days who was getting a PhD in French lit at Cal, so I took a bus over to see her. I walked across the campus at UC BERKELEY wearing my class A uniform and carrying a duffle bag over my shoulder. At no time did anyone as much as scowl at me -- I encountered no hostility whatever in this epicenter of anti-war sentiment. I met a number of my friend's friends over the next few days and the most anyone had to say about my service was to offer their sympathy that I went. They hated the war all right, but that did not extend to me or as far as I could tell to any other poor sap who went.

After that I returned to Ohio and enrolled in a graduate program at the U of Toledo, and likewise encountered nothing resembling hostility, even though I made no effort to conceal the fact that I was a vet. And I know a number of VN vets, all of whom firmly believe this urban myth of hostility toward our number, but I have never heard EVEN ONE first-person anecdote of an actual hostile act. This is not to say that some did not receive bad treatment of some kind, but the story of general hostility seems to me one of those things that gains acceptance through repetition rather than reality.

So you will pardon me if I think a lot of these stories of bad treatment of Vietnam vets are greatly exaggerated or completely apocryphal. If Brian Williams had been one of us I'll bet he would have lots of stories about being spit upon. Maybe even beat up.:mrgreen:

I know this is not important to most readers here, but I just want to set the record straight as I see it. The "Cult of Victimization" so popular in this country doesn't need another chapter.

I have to disagree with you as I've seen it first hand. I got on my ship in Haiphong Harbor in Sept 73 as it was finishing up mine sweeping operations. We finished and left a couple of weeks later and sett of for Norfolk, Va and arrived there in Oct. 73 after making some port calls on the way. We were greeted by dozens of protestors who didn't even know we were on a peace mission. It was an unexpected greeting that shocked us as we got off the ship. My brother went through similar harassment several times coming back from several weekly to Viet Nam to Pearl Harbor.
It did happen many times and it was not exaggerated in the least. Just because you didn't experience it doesn't make it any less real.