Posted on 05/19/2013 6:35:39 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th
Forty-six years after being killed in action,
the U.S. Navy honored Lt. Dennis Peterson of Huntington Park
during an interment ceremony on May 2.
Lt. Peterson was 27 when he left to serve in the Vietnam War on March 27, 1967.
I’m glad he is home now.RIP.
I’m an in between’r, having graduated in 80 from HS. Our family has a lot of military in it. My nephews are in the service now.
I am in awe of all of you. I get choaked up at a moments notice when I read these stories.
I registered for the draft, first year since it was discontinued.
I would have served if called upon, but Carter had other plans.
Thank you for all that you do, whether your vets of WW11, Korea, VN, or of any other duty... You are appreciated by the majority of Americans.
God Bless you and your families for your sacrifices.
I always read these threads and hope to hear my old buddy Captain Gary Fors USMC remains have been recovered.
Although we were enlisted, he was a great buddy to us that never let his status as a pilot keep him from kidding around with us.
Will never forget the guy.
I grew up thinking the Army would be part of my future but the incredible waste of Viet Nam sickened me.
A KIA from our high school class of ‘65 came back and I went to his funeral in our little Iowa town. Someone said only part of him was recovered.
A farm kid from the same class was an APC driver in VN. He drove over a mine and the explosion came up through the floor. Among other less serious injuries, he lost one testicle. He was granted a 95 percent disability.
He returned home, married a girl from the class of ‘68 and had several children.
Salute.
Welcome home.
I graduated from Kofa High School (Yuma, AZ) in the spring of 1967; I was just about 30-40 days shy of my 18th birthday. Although my grades were good (A- average college curricula track), there was no money for college. So I worked picking melons until I turned 18 in mid-July.
Went to the old post office downtown about noontime on my birthday and filled out my draft registration card. Then, since I was either going to enlist or be drafted, I went upstairs to see the recruiters.
It being 1967, the Air Force and Navy recruiting offices were closed with signs giving out-of-town telephone numbers if you wanted to contact them. They probably had waiting lists of young men wanting to enlist. The Army recruiter’s door had a handwritten note taped to it saying he would be out until mid-afternoon. The Marine Corps recruiter was in and the rest, as they say, is history.
Got my draft notice during third phase in bootcamp. DI told me to send it back with my service number (which I can still remember) and the reply “Currently on active service with the United States Marine Corps.”
Much later on, when I had a chance to learn about the hard work it was recruiting for the Marines during that unpopular war, I realized what Godsend it must have been for that SSgt to have a fully qualified recruit just walk into his office in mid-summer and ask to ship out immediately.
Best decision I ever made.
I had no idea so many of our men vanished into Laos without a trace. It breaks my heart to think what the Fors family and so many others have gone through.
It was definitely a strange time...
while you attended funerals for your upper classmen
at the same time watching some guys in suits in Washington
drawing ping pong balls from a gold fish bowl
to determine who was going to be next.
It all seems like surrealism, now
My husband died last month at 85, a veteran of 24 years service. He and his brother were in Korea in 1952 when his brother was killed and it took them 2 weeks to locate my husband to escort his brother home. He was designated sole surviving son and didn't go to VN, for which he always felt guilty. He was a hcptr pilot by then and went twice more to Korea instead. He was always proud of helping fly the Pueblo crew home in Dec. 1968.
I am so glad to see that some of the VN "lost" are being returned like Lt. Peterson. So sad to lose them in such a useless war where we didn't learn anything from the French having fought No. Vietnam for 20 years. Just like we didn't learn anything frm the Russians fighting for 20 years in Afghanistan.
God bless you, shipmate.
And, may you rest forever in peace.
Few people today know of the sacrifices and disdain suffered by the Vietnam vets.
Now rest, shipmate, you earned it. And, thank you for serving your country so valiantly!
Welcome home!
Welcome home Sir.
Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.
Thank you RT17TH, for posting this..
PING to the Canteen.
God rest the soul of a real hero! *salute*
Welcome home, Lt.
Thanks for doing what you do
Thanks, My.
I am honored to do it!
...
“Thanks for doing what you do”
...
May god bless all of you.
Thank you, and may he bless you as well!
I get wiped out and numb sometimes.
I just cant do it all the time.
SO SAD, that his wife didn’t live to see him honored, but his daughters did.
Praise God for that!
May God forever hold him dear.
He’s in his new resting place, finally at home again.
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