Posted on 03/17/2021 5:43:09 AM PDT by Kartographer
James Bradley McCloughan watched as President Donald Trump placed the Medal of Honor around his father's neck, commemorating a series of selfless, heroic acts that saved the lives of fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War,
As the president read the citation during the July 2017 ceremony, the son — a Michigan state policeman — heard for the first time the story of his father's bravery under fire.
"It's something that you just don't bring up for two reasons," medal recipient James Charles McCloughan explained in an interview Thursday. "No. 1, you don't want to go there. You've been through it. Once is enough.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
You don’t have to shorten the titles anymore. JohnRob fixed that a few months ago.
My SIL's Dad,OTHOH,fought in Europe and was wounded.At his funeral she told me that he *never* spoke about it to anyone.
I've heard it said many times that that's the way is usually is with combat vets...if they talk about it at all it's only with their brothers-in-arms.
“Fields of Fire” was much better.
my wife’s granddad and I spoke about his time in Europe with the 36th infantry. The battles and being captured by the germans and held prisoner for almost 2 years.
he was 85 years old at the time and no one the family...not even has son had heard those stories he was telling me. We both served in the Army. You are right. Sometimes the only people vets can talk to are other vets.
I remember going through this routine when I was in OCS, after my time in Vietnam, and I was telling my fellow Candidates about a particular experience and one of the Candidates told me that "real combat veterans are silent and don't discuss their experiences - look at that other Candidate (a former sergeant who never said anything to anyone) - he is quiet about his experiences - who knows what he may have seen".
I realized that nobody wanted to hear about my experiences, so I stopped telling them anything.
When we graduated and put our officer's uniforms on for the first time, I got wear my ribbons - which include a Bronze Star with "V" and a Purple Heart - and the silent former sergeant had just one ribbon: the National Defense Service ribbon.
It all depends on who you are and how your experiences affected you.
IMO it can be argued that for officer candidates like yourself it's actually *important* to converse with fellow candidates and instructors as a worthwhile way to learn.
I guess I should have been more specific in my earlier post: it's my understanding that *WWII vets* refrained from discussing their experiences with *family*...perhaps because they didn't want to re-live it themselves and/or because they didn't want to burden their loved ones with the horrors they experienced.
Of course I could be completely misinformed on that matter.
Of my infantry company in Vietnam, almost everyone was wounded at least once, some as many as three times. The average time before being wounded or killed was one and half months. All of us who survived Vietnam have had prostate cancer - all of us.
I tell my stories to help others learn (particularly those wearing our uniform now), to preserve our history, to preserve our memory and to let everyone know that I am proud to have been one of us.
The only combat I experienced in the Navy was getting caught in the middle of a pool ball fight in a bar in Rota, Spain.
Found a safe place under the table.
I don’t doubt your statement but it is truly shocking that all who survived Vietnam have prostate cancer.
I weep for all of us but particularly for those who served harsh terms in any cause that they were called for whether it was for our freedom or some tom foolery of politics. They served and suffered at the bidding of the nation. That is enough to give me anguish when I see how our liberty is being trampled and cheapened.
I lost my wife after a lengthy, awful hospital stay that left me with mental scars and lots of unhappy images.
I have deliberately suppressed most of the memories from that grim experience, so I can understand why some combat vets refuse to discuss the things they endured. They might be deliberately trying NOT to remember, to keep the horrors from haunting them.
Just a guess on my part.
Washington DC...the WWII Memorial (which,IIRC,had just recently opened when we visited)...it wasn't very crowded for some reason but not far from us I saw a middle aged man pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair. He was wearing a WWII USMC baseball cap and for some reason I approached him (which could be seen as rude or intrusive) and I saw that he had tears in his eyes. I said a few words to him and then I had to walk away because to me the sight of those tears was too much for me to take.
And one last note...I did my BCT at Fort Knox in '69,back when Ft Knox was The Home of Armor...Army *and* Marines. There were Marines taking Armor training that were housed right near our barracks...we were so scared of them that we avoided contact with them at all costs! :-)
One of the reasons the VFW was started after WWI was because the combat veterans needed a place to share without judgment. An elderly friend told me about their experience in the 1950s in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. A number of families and friends would gather after church on Sunday for a dinner. After dinner the ‘men folk’ would go out on the porch to relax, smoke and share stories. Often it turned to their experiences in WWII. The women would stay inside with the window open to get a breeze inside the house. They say while the men were talking and sharing their experiences, the women were silent. Because they were listening to stories shared by their loved-ones. Stories that the loved-ones did not feel appropriate to be shared with their wives and daughters.
There are no rules; there is no book of instructions on how to deal with our experiences once we return to “the real world”...
I have to remind myself the veterans’ traumatic experiences actually occurred in “the real world”, and the world most of us live in daily is the actual fantasy...
You feel the need to tell it, then tell it...Your way...You’re the greatest expert on your story...Like the song said, “...Walk a mile in my shoes...”
I was an active duty Army officer from 1974-79. I never mention that I am a veteran because there was no large armed conflict going on anywhere in the world.
However, I am proud to have served.
Ha! Assigned to Shore Patrol duty in Rota, I was probably the guy who was called in to break it up. I experienced a lot of outchies when the Enlisted Club closed at night. The worse was a huge Marine who wouldn't accept no, and took 5 of us to take him down. Lots of scrapes and bruises from that one. We even had to shackle his feet after one SP got kicked un-conscience.
Would you mind explaining your tag line?
It looks ominous!
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