"Back in the sixties when you were smoking all that pot and dropping all that acid with Donald Sutherland on the set of the steaming heap of leftist propaganda that was "MASH" your brain probably got so fried you thought anything, including the American flag, was funny. Your career, Mr. Altman, now that's the real joke."
November, 1968 I had just returned from Dong Ha,having put in my two years. One of the first things I wanted to do was to go to a movie with my wife. I was still in transition, I didn't have a clue. We were in York, PA...in a theater showing "Mash". As the credits scrolled, with a scene depicting wounded soldiers being brought in by choppers, and the sound track playing a song about suicide, there, in the darkness of the theater I broke into a cold sweat.
Minutes later, one of the character's made a joke about a trooper's groin being destroyed by a granade. I looked to my left in disbelief and watched a rather fat teenage boy with a gallon of popcorn in his lap... laughing.
Later when I told my older brother about how upset this experience had made me, he scolded me, "For crying out loud Peter, the movie was about Korea not Viet Nam ! "
For the next ten or 15 years, I refused to talk about Viet Nam to anyone. What was the point?
Let me share a story. A FReeper in Wisconsin wanted an autographed UNFIT FOR COMMAND but O'Neill was not going to be in his area. He heard that I was going to a book signing in Beverly Hills and asked me to get him two books -- one for him and one for an employee of his who worked for him for seven years. Seven years and he didn't realize the employee had served in Vietnam. He had never talked about it before the SwiftVets went public against Kerry.
He sent the money and I was pleased to be able to get the books. O'Neill signed one --- "Jim, to my comrade in arms, welcome home. Finally, welcome home." The books were sent and my FReeper friend in Wisconsin told me that Jim was so overcome that he had to go be alone for awhile. I think the SwiftVets did an incredible service for you guys who fought for all of us and got such a rotten deal.
Here is a song I wrote for the Swifties. John O'Neill told me he was honored and would remember it forever. What a great feeling. ONE FINE SOLDIER