I was a young teenager during the early years of Vietnam, and didn’t pay a lot of attention to it at first. But I was in an all girls chorus in high school, and Christmas when I wasn in 9th grade, we went down to Keesler AF base in Biloxi MS and did a show for the airmen. We sang “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, and it occurred to me, later, that some of those guys, who were due to ship out soon, probably never made it home. I can’t hear that song anymore, without tearing up.
I was there for the last half of 1975! I had my wife there with me so I didn't go to a Christmas show in the triangle. Come to think of it, we never went to the theater there even one time. Keesler involved just marching, with briefcases, to Wolfe and Allee Halls for classes and studying to become a Tech Control Water Walker.