Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/04/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Everyone I knew from my neighborhood and from high school got shot or injured by shrapnel. And when they came back to the US to recover, they stayed at home and didn't let their presence be known. They also all returned to find that their girlfriends or wives had decided to move on to someone else. A rough time for everyone. Jeffery At 04:54 PM 4/16/2004, you wrote: >On 4/16/04 <jls@runbox.com (Jeffery Smith)> thoughtfully wrote: > > > > >Unlike WWI or WWII, the Viet Nam war was unique. There was an enormous > >outcry against the war, from pacifists, from college students, and from > >friends and family of the soldiers. This put the soldiers in a very awkward > >position of being pariahs when they returned. There are innumerable Viet > >Nam vets who have been permanently scarred by having been outcasts after a > >war that virtually nobody wanted to admit to. I lost friends I had grown up > >with, and know others who are still terribly adversely affected by the > >experience. I don't think that a monument to their sacrifice is at all > >excessive. > > > >It was an awful time to be in the military in general. All of us avoided >wearing >the uniform in public because it would inevitably (in the San Francisco Bay >area) end up with a nasty remark. My friend Jim and I WERE spat on while >driving >my jeep down Union Street in The City. > >I contrast it to my son's experience where travelling in uniform usually >means a >free drink from a patron at an airport lounge and even a kind word from the >ladies. (Of course HE looks great wearing Navy dress blues - grin). It's a >totally different era. A group of Sailors went to NYC during fleet week, >taking >the train down from New London, and went dancing. They got in free and their >money wasn't any good at the bar for sodas. And they never had to look for >someone to dance with. Amazing. > >For me the Wall is the perfect reminder of loss and consequences. A certain >president should stroll there and remember the meaning of it, if he can >remember >Vietnam through the alcoholic haze of that period. > >Adam Bridge > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information