HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Posted on 11/22/2018

Each Vietnam veteran has at least one thing for which to be thankful.  We are here to celebrate the day.  Too many of our brothers and sisters did not make it, and even far more have passed since those years.  There are perhaps one third of us left for this holiday.

It may seem out of place, this day not being a military-related holiday, but I am thankful for our active military duty personnel around the country and around the world, and my fellow veterans.  I recall the two Thanksgivings spent away from family and friends.  I was thankful then for the brothers with whom I shared that holiday.

Of course, special thanks are in order for those who served in the 20th and 172nd Preventive Medicine Units in Vietnam.  Awareness of our existence was near zero during the war, and few outside of our veterans know of the units today.  Still, there is no way to estimate how many illnesses, and how many deaths, we helped our troops to avoid.  I suspect the numbers would be far greater than the tiny size of our units might suggest.

Happy Thanksgiving, my brothers and sisters!

THANK YOU

Posted on 11/11/2018 Updated on 11/11/2018

My dear brothers and sisters,

No one here has fought for the freedom of our country.  That fighting was over after the Revolutionary and Civil wars.  Our service has often been in an equally noble pursuit – the freedom of others around the world.

I don’t think it is possible to convey to non-veterans the sacrifices of military service, which are too numerous to mention even for the safest duty, non-combat veteran.  Veterans are among the smallest of minorities in America, and we must be ever vigilant for any signs of being ignored, or worse yet, vilified.

To that end, I thank also the families of veterans, and the many civilian supporters of veterans’ causes.  Even just their thanks is a service to veterans, and many go far beyond a ‘thank you’.

This year has marked the 50th anniversary of my own service, having left Vietnam and having been discharged honorably from service on Christmas Eve day, 1968.  I have done a lot of thinking about that throughout this year, and even more as my anniversary approaches.  What I have discovered is that, while I feel pride in having served, the most lingering emotion is sadness about the sacrifices of all veterans.  The losses of service, in many instances, outweighed the gains, as all too often the losses continued well into civilian life – divorces, addictions, and homelessness to name a few.

I think from today forward I will not say “Thank you for your service” when encountering veterans.  I will say “Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.”