Boomers - do you remember???? - Page 3

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

It is so sad that we just can't learn from previous wars that the cost is too high - and I don't mean in money. The lives of men who see the unspeakable are forever changed. My Dad was injured and left the war before this happened but his unit was one of the first to cross into Germany and liberated some concentration camps. When we were kids they would have reunions every year and they all talked about what they saw at those places.They just could not get their minds to let go of it.The Moms would try to keep us kids away from them so we would not hear. We would though and would also see them crying or get angry.I'm sure it was good for them to get this out of their system.

Cakers3 · ‎06-17-2015

@barbara in Virginia wrote:
Oh, yes, I remember that song well. Also "Next Stop Viet Nam". I was a bridesmaid in a sorority sister's wedding right before both she and her groom graduated. He very soon after that went to Viet Nam as an officer. I was in the Peace Corps in my site the following fall when I got a lettherer from another sorority sister telling me that Bill had been killed. Heartbreaking. When my husband was medically evacuated from the Peace Corps he was sent to Bethesda Naval Hospital and was in a ward with many other young men who were there after being evacuated from Viet Nam. I will never forget my heartbreak in seeing them there. Some had flashbacks and kept weapons concealed under their pillows. Others were so physically maimed that they would never be the same again. What was horrific to me is that the VA was offering them nothing after they were released from the hospital.

I was very much opposed to that war and participated in both of the huge marches in Washington, DC.

@Barbara in Virginia "The Fish Cheer/I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die" rag.

Intersting that "Country Joe" actually served in the military in Japan (before VN).

"" Compassion is a verb."-Thich Nhat Hanh

SilleeMee · ‎05-22-2016

I was 10 yo when that song came out and I do remember it clearly. A few years after that year, in 1969, my dad deployed to VN to serve two tours in Army Infantry combat in the jungle. Fortunately he did not come home in a box. He did, however, have some gruesome pictures of what he saw over there...those were brought back in a box and put away for eternity. I never saw them, tg.

KathyM23 · ‎11-20-2010

@Barbara in Virginia

That is what I wanted to say but I was afraid it would get the thread poofed as political. You are so right, the polliticians promoting that war should have been the ones who had to endure the horror of it - not our brave young boys. I want to say more, but don't want the thread poofed.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

I know some guys who still think VN was their glory days. They don't see that raising a family - having a successful marriage and making a decent living were their real glory days. Not those days surviving in hell.

grandma r · ‎10-26-2010

Sadly, I remember all too well. Too many didn't come home; some who did were forever changed. And, some are still suffering from the effects of agent orange!

That particular song was exactly what most of us were hoping for at that time.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

I looked up how many Americans had died in various wars starting with WWl - 17 million. Can you possibly imagine?

WWll - 440,000+ Korea 34,000+ , Viet Nam 54,000+ , Middle East 4,446 but the number changes hourly.

Add the injured physically and emotionally and it is astronomical!

GSPgirl · ‎01-03-2012

Sorry. I just remember a Marine coming to our house to tell us my dad was in critical condition after being shot in Vietnam.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@151949 wrote:
I know some guys who still think VN was their glory days. They don't see that raising a family - having a successful marriage and making a decent living were their real glory days. Not those days surviving in hell.

@151949, it might be that they have not found anything to match that adrenline rush and the comraderie that can't be duplicated in civilian life. The ordinariness of daily living just pales in comparison for these guys.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

tansy · ‎01-02-2011

@suzyQ3 wrote:
@151949 wrote:
I know some guys who still think VN was their glory days. They don't see that raising a family - having a successful marriage and making a decent living were their real glory days. Not those days surviving in hell.
@151949, it might be that they have not found anything to match that adrenline rush and the comraderie that can't be duplicated in civilian life. The ordinariness of daily living just pales in comparison for these guys.

My dad flew a P51 during WWII and always said those were the best years of his life. That really hurt my feelings as a kid😕