Interesting read.
I for one have been just fine with my service in Vietnam and I never cared what the twits back here had to say. We had vicious enemies to fight, nice people to protect, and the best young guys in the country around us.
The hard part for me was to forgive the guys of my generation that didn’t go, didn’t fight. I think I have finally gotten there but my best friends are still the men I served with.
Your last sentence is mine also,just a bond nothing breaks, not even death.
“White Christmas” is one of our favorite Christmas movies because of the continuing “doing it for a pal in the Army” theme. Shows the bond created by those who served, even to those of us who didn’t.
Thank you for your service, marine.
I was lucky, as I graduated from HS in 72. On 4/1/72, I received a letter notifying me that I had been awarded a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship. The next day, I told a few folks that I thought were my friends.
The news spread like wildfire on a HS campus located 15 miles south of Berkeley. My last two months were miserable, I was called every name in the book by dozens of know-nothing dip$hit liberal teenagers.
One of my favorite teachers expressed his disappointment to me. The only one thrilled for my success was my calculus teacher, a former Jesuit priest from Marquette. When I told him I was considering Gonzaga, he wholeheartedly supported it.
Looking back at my transcript, I was #35 of a class of 450, yet I had been awarded the best scholarship of anyone in my class. My four years of college were paid for, and I had my choice of any school that offered Army ROTC.
I've never been back to a single reunion, with no regrets. I have maintained zero contact with anyone I went to HS with.
I've maintained contact with more than a dozen college classmates, and we're planning a get together in May, when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of our commissioning. There were 20-22 of us that hung together from matriculation to graduation. It was a good group, which produced a Major General and several Colonels, 6-7 Rangers, and over half the class earned jump wings.
Thank you for your service.
Ditto...everything you said