Posted on 09/17/2004 7:56:38 AM PDT by presidio9
ARLINGTON, Va.
The rows of simple white headstones in the broad expanses of brilliant green lawns are scrupulously arranged, and they seem to go on and on, endlessly, in every direction.
It was impossible not to be moved. A soft September wind was the only sound. Beyond that was just the silence of history, and the collective memory of the lives lost in its service.
Nearly 300,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, which is just across the Potomac from Washington. On Tuesday morning I visited the grave of Air Force Second Lt. Richard VandeGeer. The headstone tells us, as simply as possible, that he went to Vietnam, that he was born Jan. 11, 1948, and died May 15, 1975, and that he was awarded the Purple Heart.
His mother, Diana VandeGeer, who is 75 now and lives in Florida, tells us that he loved to play soldier as a child, that he was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and that she longs for him still. He would be 56 now, but to his mother he is forever a tall and handsome 27.
Richard VandeGeer was not the last American serviceman to die in the Vietnam War, but he was close enough. He was part of the last group of Americans killed, and his name was the last of the more than 58,000 to be listed on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. As I stood at his grave, I couldn't help but wonder how long it will take us to get to the last American combat death in Iraq.
Lieutenant VandeGeer died heroically. He was the pilot of a CH-53A transport helicopter that was part of an effort to rescue crew members of the Mayaguez, an American merchant ship that was captured by the Khmer Rouge off the coast of Cambodia on May 12, 1975. The helicopter was shot down and half of the 26 men aboard, including Lieutenant VandeGeer, perished.
(It was later learned that the crew of the Mayaguez had already been released.)
The failed rescue operation, considered the last combat activity of the Vietnam War, came four years after John Kerry's famous question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as senseless as those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's errand known as Vietnam. His remains were not recovered for 20 years - not until a joint operation by American and Cambodian authorities located the underwater helicopter wreckage in 1995. Positive identification, using the most advanced DNA technology, took another four years. Lieutenant VandeGeer was buried at Arlington in a private ceremony in 2000.
The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation put me in touch with the lieutenant's family. "I'm still angry that my son is gone," said Mrs. VandeGeer, who is divorced and lives alone in Cocoa Beach. "I'm his mother. I think about him every day."
She said that while she will always be proud of her son, she believes he "died for nothing."
Lieutenant VandeGeer's sister, Michelle, told me she can't think about her brother without recalling that the last time she saw him was on her wedding day, in May 1974. "He looked so handsome and confident," she said. "He wanted to change the world."
Wars are all about chaos and catastrophes, death and suffering, and lifelong grief, which is why you should go to war only when it's absolutely unavoidable. Wars tear families apart as surely as they tear apart the flesh of those killed and wounded. Since we learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony, this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.
Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.
When the newscaster David Brinkley, appalled by the carnage in Vietnam, asked Lyndon Johnson why he didn't just bring the troops home, Johnson replied, "I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war."
George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.
I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this colossal mistake.
Quagmire Alert!!!
This is DISGUSTING!! I have a hard time not hating these people.
Lord, help me, please.
As long as it takes to get the job done, Mr. Herbert. Our boys know why they're over there. It's leftists like you, trivializing each and every soldier over there as a number, that shows you're really just politicizing the lives of our men and women in uniform.
I thought Iraq was on schedule for January elections. Did I miss something?
Somehow this line has become recognized as one of the great pieces of American Rhetoric. Right up there with "I have a dream" and "Ask not what your country can do for you".
I've never understood Kerry's line. It makes no sense. You don't ask a man to die. And the war was not a mistake. We should have fought on to victory -- millions of lives would have been saved.
Uh, weren't we losing so many guys in 'nam that less than 100 in a day didn't even make the news?
im gonna stay out of it i don't think you people want me to opine... i think you know my thought's, it's to early in the morning for this...
Frankly, if W wins in November, I expect that areas like Fallujah and Najaf are going to get some very special attention from the Army Marines and Air Force.
Yes, Mr. Herbert, I am questioning your patriotism.
The MSM will do what they can to repeat Vietnam. Should be clear to all by now. No matter what the polls, don't let up.
"George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat."
Mr. Herbert you are an immoral piece of dirty bird dropping. You still have the right, to babel on about things which you are either ignorant of or you are just plain perverted.
None of the US conflicts since 1975 can be accurately described as "another Vietnam" since they
a) aren't taking place in Vietnam
b) aren't being fought by draftees
c) have not had policy dictated by the press
If the USA is having problems in Iraq, which we are, it is because, in large measure, the Democrat Party has not gotten behind the President to present the enemy with one unified USA face. All the Democrat Party has done is to undermine the war effort, the rebuilding and democracy tasks in Iraq and given aid and comfort to our enemies. The Muslim terrorists will only keep up the pressure as long as the Democrat Party undermines the USA effort. If GW Bush is re-elected, it will be all over for the terrorists. Bush can go forward at full speed protecting America, without the anchor of traitorism so evidenced by the current Democrat Party. If the American voters have any smarts they will not only handily defeat John Kerry, but they will also destroy the Democrat Party in total!!!
paid for by Moveon.org geesh
Can we afford to lose this war? How many post-war deaths are acceptable? How many hits on this territory are within limits after a US withdrawal fires up a few million islamokillers worldwide? I guess its pretty clear that that area of the world is just not worth it, right?
White flags look good on the backs of American GIs--and the heads of the pinheads at the NYT.
Hebert is too old to be ignorant. He is a hateful and spiteful old man.
Where is the BARF Alert?
we didnt lose, we left. 'nuff said
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