Posted on 09/24/2002 11:50:08 PM PDT by Snow Bunny
While aboard USS BATAAN, the "Checkerboards" became the first piston engine squadron to shoot down a jet aircraft, when Captain Jesse Folmar shot down a MIG-15 jet fighter with 20mm cannon fire.
My favorite. You guys have sure got some good jokes today. Thanks for sharing.
I found this web site - www. vietnamdogtags.com - and think everyone will enjoy it.
Excerpts from: Vietnam, A Personal Journey
My name is Stacey. I am 33 years old and have been a Firefighter with a West Coast City for the past 4 years; a paramedic for 8. I have had the fortunate opportunity of coming into contact with many Veterans, most now on the brink of retirement. I feel extremely honored to have heard some of your courageous and painful stories...
It is in part, for this reason that I found myself wanting to do "something" for the Veterans of Vietnam. To, somehow, help this forgotten generation of a very volatile time...
Eventually, the time and opportunity presented itself to travel to Vietnam...
One day soon after I arrived, I went to the Independence Palace (the place where the first Communist tanks rushed the iron gates back in 1975)...
Downstairs, in the palace, I saw for the first time, Military Identification Tags ..."Dog Tags." I stood there for a long time just looking at them disconcertingly. Then, with my hands, I motioned to the Vietnamese girls behind the counter. They didn't speak an ounce of english, but understood that I was asking to look at the tags in the case. I wondered if they were real?...
I thought they must be real, for the country was not saturated with tourism at all. English speaking people were hard to come by, and I didn't feel there were enough tourists for the tags, specifically, to be mass produced in an effort to generate revenue. The tags looked old, tattered, soiled, bent and rusted. There were not many of them. I bought them all.
It was difficult not to buy the other remnants... As I walked outside, my steps slowed. I took one of the tags out and looked at it closely as the traffic whizzed by. Suddenly, it dawned on me...maybe THIS was what I could do for the Veterans. Something so small and yet it was "something." That day, I decided to search for as many tags as I could find in the weeks to come. Even if they were not genuine, the optimist in me said, there had to be at least one tag that was real. And, if I could find that ONE family and return the tag, somehow everything up to this point would be worth it...
Yes they do! Thank you Tom for being part of our Canteen family. I appreciate you and your inputs so much. And I love your poems!
"Hero" by Mariah Carey
MP3 version
And then a hero comes along with the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside and you know you can survive
When you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth - that a hero lies in you!
Unfortunately, I had to have him explain it. Seems that servicemen are provided 2 tags, one to be kept on the large chain, the other on the short chain.
So when a serviceman is killed in combat and has to be left behind, you're supposed to take the Tag on the short chain, and put the other tag in the casualties mouth. Then turn in the short chain tag for accountability.
So by keeping your tags together, you aren't a KIA.
I'm asking that you please post this as a separate story so we can all bump it, and get maximum exposure for it.
I for one will be emailing this off to some people I know who are, or know Vietnam Vets.
I have my Uncle Fran's dog tags from WW II, he was on a Navy Destroyer, The USS FOGG. The FOGG was torpeoed.
Thank the Lord he returned to us all in one piece to live many years. I adored the man, he was surrogate father to my brothers and me.
LOL! That's a one to me......
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