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Thank you for your service. My brother was a Vietnam Veteran, U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division, stationed in Cu Chi from April 1966-1967. He never made it past 51. Died of a massive heart attack, and left a widow and four kids, three of whom they had adopted. I'm the last one in my family left, and the only one to make it past 74.

I also had two uncles who served overseas in the U.S. Army in WWII. One was born in Holland, and came over with my father, another brother, and their parents in 1913. The other on my mother's side was born in Canada. He was my mother''s only brother. When he enlisted, he wasn't a citizen, having come here with his mother when a young boy. The Army, in order to establish an entry date, drove him to Niagara Falls, and made his walk across the bridge and back, and made that his official entry date. On his way to California to ship overseas, he was naturalized while stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He died at the age of 48 in 1964. The story of him having to walk across the bridge had always been just that, a story, until I found the documents on Ancestry.com to prove it.

My great-uncle in Canada, served with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in WWI, and was killed in France two months before the Armistice. He was the only son in that family as well. He's buried in a British Military Cemetery in France. My mother's family was strange in that a branch had come from England and settled in New York, specifically Dutchess County. My 5th Great-Grandfather was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia, and is listed in the DAR Patriot Index. It was one of his son's who left the State, went to Canada, and married the daughter of a Loyalist family from Dutchess County. His father wrote him out of the Will.

mass55th: "My brother was a Vietnam Veteran, U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division, stationed in Cu Chi from April 1966-1967..."

Thanks for relating your fascinating family history of US military service, I'm sorry to learn so many didn't make it past middle age.

My family's history of service goes back to the Revolutionary War and the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, militia responsible, as I understand it, for protecting supply lines to Washington's troops at Valley Forge.
Ancestors or family served in the Civil War, both World Wars and every major US conflict since.
Some were wounded but all survived and prospered after their war, and until my dad's generation they were all farmers, some were school teachers.

When I was a boy, we were taught the "lessons of WWII", which included that weakness provokes aggression from evil dictators.
That's what I see in Ukraine, while others seemingly see something quite different.