Your service is greatly appreciated - more now than it was at the time. I was 14 or 15 when they ended the draft. Had it pounded into my head by our liberal teachers that Vietnam was a lost cause. At the time, I believed them.
In the hindsight that I gained through the 1980's and later, I learned that these particular teachers were quite wrong. Frankly, and I still love my brother dearly despite him being a tree-hugging liberal to this day, my brother was wrong as well. I just didn't know it yet.
I took a very interesting class at Baldwin-Wallace college in 1998 or 1999 - "Vietnam - Causes and Consequences" taught by Dr. L. A. Barone. It was excellent, and it gave me a little more understanding of the war from beginning to end. Obviously, I never got the feeling that I was in a combat situation, but I got an excellent overview of the war from the French losses in Bein Mein Phu (sp?) through the final withdrawel of US troops in 73 to the fall of Saigon in 75.
I have worked with, and am friends with many men who were soldiers, marines, or other military involved in the Vietnam War. I learned a great deal from them, and I hold that knowledge almost as dearly as those friendships.
I had the opportunity to visit the travelling Vietnam Memorial Wall last summer in Sevierville, Tennessee. It was quite an experience. I had never seen the "real" wall in Washington so I didn't really know what to expect.
I arrived at the location very early in the morning, before any visitors were there (I was photographing the wall for a friend that volunteered to help with the exhibition). Before I even pulled out the camera equipment, I walked out to the center of the wall. I started looking at the names - the names of patriots that left their homes at a young age, never to return. The names of people that left behind friends, families, children, and parents. I was overcome for a few minutes as all of that sunk in - I felt it. I can't describe it - I just felt it.
Thank you for your service!