To all my veteran brothers, enjoy our day of recognition. And "Welcome Home".
I just got home from my annual day of foraging and some simple math shows a haul of 3 1/2 feet of turkey sub, a little over 3 square feet of pizza, 2 gallons of diet Pepsi and a deep concern about how bad an eating disorder is when you start measuring food in linear footage... Though I suppose it doesn't become a disorder unless you eat it all in one sitting. This will last me a week.
My father, my six uncles and Janice’s father all served in WWII combat. Many folks nowadays appear to not understand sacrifice. Hats off and respect to all veterans past and present and to those currently serving.
The photo is one i shot of our local veterans cemetery where Janice’s father and mother rest. We visit it several times a week. It’s beautiful and is very large which makes for a pleasant walk.
Bud
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I drew #312 in the "lotto for your life." My best friend died in Vietnam (actually Cambodia but those operations were classified) and I went to graduate school. All due to a safe number. Sans that number I would have joined the Navy. I've felt a bit of guilt about it all for 50+ years. Hard to explain those times if you weren't there.
Bud
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I was #7, Bud. The day before me was #320. The day after was #285. I was #7. I took a 3rd year to go to Germany and avoid Vietnam. 88 days after I arrived in Germany my entire battalion was picked up and moved to Vietnam. I was so naive I thought that my sign on contract was binding. I was sitting in the base bar drinking with an older E7 I met there and he just laughed and said "Boy, Uncle Green sends you wherever the F he thinks they need you. The small print you likely didn't read has something about 'emergency' in it. You'll be fine. You are a mechanic so you will be on a base camp and you'll grow to like the duty there."
Well, he was right. Shave, don't shave, whatever. Polish boots, don't polish boots, whatever. Haircuts, if you feel like. I liked it so much better with the relaxed discipline that I extended my tour for an extra 6 months. Came home at Christmas time in 1972 and had to go BACK to Ft Sill(y) Oklahoma and immediately went back to hating the Army.
Thanks to all the vets. I for one am glad some of you did not have serve. I did a second tour to keep someone else from going to Vietnam. Many of us did that to protect others. We got to go to school also but just later.
There are no winners in war, just survivors.
I have my Selective Service System Notice Of Classification card setting here on my desk dated 21 September 1965, I-A. At least I had some idea of what I was getting into because I was in Europe in the beginning of 1965. There you saw on TV what was really going on. There was less hiding the truth from the public in France at that time.
On May 7, 1954, the French-held garrison at Dien Bien Phu was over runned so by 1965 the French were fed up with the whole thing. So I guess there was little reason to hide much by that time.
I was part of the people that were never there in the places that we never were. I think this was the beginning of the serious lack of trust in our federal government and the people who were in power.
Thanks to all the vets I served with who made it possible for me to return alive, and to all the vets both here and abroad.
If you get hungry Eddie, just drop by anytime. You will always get something good to eat at my house. Sorry, but I ate all the C-rations....lol
Cheers,
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
In ‘63 i was a college senior, don’t remember whether I was 4F or not when I went for a physical it verified I had a bad heart valve but not serious enough to keep me out of service. An opportunity opened up for me to join the 561st California air national guard band so I suspended my last semester to join. It was one of my better life decisions.
I was a high number lotto guy. I did however go for the Navy physical voluntarily. But when I was there I found myself trying to do everything I could to fail. Which I did not. So I was schedule to report to airport a week later to fly out. But I never went to the airport. That is about as much of the details as I recall. But I am pretty confident I did not sign anything and no one is looking for me.
Heck, I was kinda a mess around that point in my life. Nothing to be proud of. Given that sordid history I can only say I have the utmost respect and I will always honor our service men and women. God bless you all and thank you for your service.
Well, they'd be like 50 years old now anyway, so....
In Vietnam I had a hotplate in my room. I would always trade guys who came off the road for a few days on the firebase for whatever Cs they had to spare. Beer was the best currency there. I would get a lot of the chicken casserole/stew and the spaghetti and meatballs. I would take the chicken casserole and add canned vegetables to it, make ramen noodles, and my roommate and I could dine in if we chose to. It is always said that the people you want to meet are the motor sergeant and the mess sergeant. I WAS the motor sergeant and the mess sergeant was one of my best pals over there. When he needed a Jeep, he got one. And if we were hanging out at night and got hungry, well, he had the keys...
I remember we had our choice of Schlitz or Hamm's beer. I HATED Hamm's. I had a small fridge in my room as well as one in my office at the shop. When a new guy rotated in the torch of responsibility was passed to him to keep the shop fridge stocked with beer (and NOTHING BUT beer). Guys would toss a buck here and a buck there into the beer fund and the new-boot knew where the money was. Guys would come in off the road to have something done to their jeep or truck and they had a nice cool room to hang out and have a beer in.
I wish I could tell you how many mufflers and exhaust pipes were patched with Schlitz cans. We didn't exactly have an Auto Zone nearby.... Just open both ends of the car, cut out what you needed, and weld it onto the muffler or tailpipe.
And one time we had an audit coming and we had a jeep we weren't supposed to have because some guy came in out of the field in the jeep and then grabbed a chopper back to his home base. The captain told me "And you need to lose that extra jeep." I asked him how to do that and he turned his back, started walking out and said "Just lose it." So I called the heavy equipment guys and told them I needed a couple of front end loaded earth movers. We drive it down to the shore of Danang Bay and I had the graders dig a long, slow trench, and when it got deep enough one of them pushed the jeep into the trench and then covered it up. If the cement stanchions from the guard tower right there are still there, I'd bet 100 bucks that I could still find that jeep by triangulating the math I used to bury it. Unless of course erosion from 48 years ago has already uncovered it, but is that happened, good luck with them calling me out on it. All I did was follow orders and make a jeep vanish! LOL!!
Heck, I was kinda a mess around that point in my life. Nothing to be proud of. Given that sordid history I can only say I have the utmost respect and I will always honor our service men and women. God bless you all.
Nobody with a brain would hold anything against you this many years later. It isn't for everybody. That said if I was 19 again I would have picked Navy. Those guys got to see stuff. I never met a Navy guy who didn't have binder after binder of photos from all these great places. The best I can do is Lawton Oklahoma...
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