Community Chat

[Nancy Drew]

I wish our country treated our heroes better when they came back. I salute them and thank them. 

[Ms X]

OP, that is so sad that your brother was never found.  I agree that our soldiers and those who helped us in the war should never be abandoned whatever the cost.  That said, I wonder about whether the war was a good idea.  I don't know about those things.  When I was in third grade, we wrote cards to the father of a student who was fighting in Vietnam.  Luckily, he did come back.

[Beth-QVC]

This is an important and serious topic and we wish to keep it on track...by that we mean respectful, not political and non controversial.  Thank you.

[kdgn]

I remember this time vividly. When I was in college I never brought up the fact that I was a military brat. It was easier all around to keep quiet. In high school I baby sat for a couple of families where the fathers had been there as pilots. My father knew those who didn't return. 

I watched the POWs come home and listened as their names were said. It was only when I heard the name of the man whose bracelet I'd been wearing did I take it off and breathed a sigh of relief. 

[151949]

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@Jackaranda wrote:

I wish our country treated our heroes better when they came back. I salute them and thank them. 

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I have heard over and over about soldiers being mistreated when they came home from Nam but I never saw it happen personally. When my brother came back from his first tour he said they were harrassed in San Diego as they got off the planes but no problem anywhere else. Others told me the same things - harrassed out on the west coast or in Hawaii when they were on R&R but never once they got home to Pittsburgh, so I am thinking this was a west coast thing more than other places. I was an antiwar flower child but even so - we would never have picked on the poor guys who were drafted and had to go over there. The war wasn't their fault.

[151949]

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@kdgn wrote:

I remember this time vividly. When I was in college I never brought up the fact that I was a military brat. It was easier all around to keep quiet. In high school I baby sat for a couple of families where the fathers had been there as pilots. My father knew those who didn't return. 

I watched the POWs come home and listened as their names were said. It was only when I heard the name of the man whose bracelet I'd been wearing did I take it off and breathed a sigh of relief. 

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I wonder if any one wore my brother's bracelet?

[terrier3]

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@151949 wrote:

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@kdgn wrote:

I remember this time vividly. When I was in college I never brought up the fact that I was a military brat. It was easier all around to keep quiet. In high school I baby sat for a couple of families where the fathers had been there as pilots. My father knew those who didn't return. 

I watched the POWs come home and listened as their names were said. It was only when I heard the name of the man whose bracelet I'd been wearing did I take it off and breathed a sigh of relief. 

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I wonder if any one wore my brother's bracelet?

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I still have my cousin's (he was never found and there is a plaque to him at Arlington too.)

Jack Kemp was a neighbor of my cousin (his FIL was a homebuilder and sold Kemp his house in the same cul-de-sac where they lived.) Kemp wore it all his life.

In spite of that (or maybe because of it!) I was very anti-war. We sent brave soldiers to be slaughtered - over nothing we could affect any way.

[CatsyCline]

i wore a POW bracelet and i'm almost certain my Veteran came home in March 1973.  i watched as he stepped off the plane in the US!  my memory is so fuzzy now  but i believe i found him on this list. i wish i could find the bracelet!  maybe we mailed them to the veteran's families.

name,  military branch, ranks and dates of loss and return:

http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/09_POWs/pow_rvn_detail.html

 alpha list by name:

http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/09_POWs/pow_rvn_list.htm

[cookinfreak]

I was 16 when this happened.  I always felt bad for all the vets from that war.  Forced to go over there, and then treated like dirt and worse when they finally got to come home. 

My mom worked with a lady whose son was killed over there and I remember feeling so terrible for her when Nixon pardoned the draft dodgers.

cookin