A war called Vietnam

I fought a war called, Vietnam
I then came home to be spat upon
Now I hear Welcome home"
Where in hell were you when I was alone?

Wars they come, wars they go
We're older now, does it show?
We've learned, we say
Today is a new day
America must have an attention problem

Concentrate on a new day
America's answer?
"Hey a new country for our war to play"
Attention span is a might short
"A new war" is America's retort

I see, "Support our troops'
I guess violence and carnage are our roots
"We really prefer peace"
Until chickens once again come home to roost

More young people with innocent faces
Sent to kill and be killed in foreign places
"They need more children, Honey'"
"Since we've learned war brings big money"

Off to another war they go
Backpacks and guns in toe
Will they return?
No one for sure can know

No one knows till the die is cast
Not until this war is in our past
But we do already know
This war will not be our last

America dusts off it's killing machine
Again and again
In the future your children they will send
America's blood thirst will never end


Oh Mom and Dad make it end
Ignore the lies
Tell them your kids you won't send
Stop showing up, again and again

Think not sending them is unpatriotic?
Our kids being killed in foreign lands is not exotic
War is simply chaotic
America, you need a tonic

Snap out of it, get well
They say 'war' you say, 'go to hell'
In too many wars, in too many lands they fell
America, heal, time to get well

A Date With Vietnam

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country "

John F. Kennedy - January 20th 1961




I believed what President Kennedy said in those words, and my parents and family backed me up on it.  It was strange, my relationship with The Nam I mean. Even when under fire, even when I was scared and feared for my life, I didn't question why America was there, why I was there.


Back then, so many of us just believed our parents, we had faith in America and we believed that we were doing the right thing.

I entered the Army with that doing the right thing attitude. So
much so, that I signed up for a second tour because I felt our
military presence was making a difference. By my second tour there, the Army felt more like home than The World did, the place where I decided I found my niche in life, like I finally found a place where I belonged.




A lot of guys back then didn't feel that way though. The ones
who had been drafted absolutely hated it there. The World was all they talked about, it dominated every conversation they had.

They talked incessantly about what they had been doing in The World when they were forced to come to Nam by the draft, their families back there, and most of all, how to get back to The World and resume their former lives. They talked about it because I think they were afraid if they stopped talking, then The World would become lost to them and they'd never make it back.

The World never held a lot of meaning for me, as a kid, so I
didn't long for it, pine for it, like many of the guys did. I had a good childhood, but my teen years had been turbulent, so, for me, leaving The World wasn't such a traumatic event. In fact, leaving The World was a big adventure for me and I was loving it, so far.

In a place we should not have been

Young soldiers in a foreign land
Having a drink, listening to a band
To a bar we were told not to go in
But too young, attracted to liquor and sin

Young enough to not expect to die
Young ideas of living forever, a lie
Young and foolish our little band
The night when death showed it's ugly hand

Taking a seat at a table, settling in for a drink
We discovered things can change in just one wink
Us die? We didn't see the link. So young, who'd think?
One blast changed it all, the night death came to call

Drinking and laughing in a forbidden zone
We thought death would leave us alone
But we temporarily forgot it was a war
War sets the tone

To the men's room I took a leave
Not knowing what war had up it's sleeve
A blast, a loud noise
The deafening noise, made me take poise

I ran out to see dust and gloom
Surrounding a place that once was a room
I looked around when I was able
Just an empty spot that once was our table

Running to help my friends
Some wounded, some met their end
I could not believe my eyes
Too young to die?  A pack of lies

Helping survivors outside
In a war, no one is able to hide
We had laughed, we said we won't die
Now we had to face that lie

War has a way of finding you when there
War isn't sympathetic of your age
War just doesn't care
I lost some good friends over there

You travel back home
Friends you have lost
You feel a little more alone
That's the fact of any war zone

You push it to the back of your mind
But eventually those thoughts creep in
Thoughts that are not very kind
Death, war, friends lost, do not leave your mind

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So later when pondering, you think
You grow older, understand the link
So this is what death is?
One bomb, wrong place, wrong time, all gone with a fizz
 
 
 

What's it like being a veteran?

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Becoming a soldier, well, what does it mean?  Maybe it depends on whether you ask a soldier before going to war or after he comes home.

Being a soldier meant doing what we thought was best, we thought we were fighting for America.  It turns out not to be so true.  If we fought for freedom, why do people disagreeing with the government not have freedom of speech?  Why do people protesting unfair treatment get tear gas and tazers?  Did we not fight for your freedom, for mine?

Many times, soldiers become disillusioned with what war really is.  Did we think that bullets, bombs and any weapons of war discriminate?  Did we think they somehow they would not cut down anything and anyone in their path?  Maybe we did.

With the erosion of freedom, did we do such an excellent job fighting, fighting for, not your freedom, not my freedom, but for the freedom of rich banks and corporations to take over, not just other countries, but America as well?

Did we fight for the freedom of going backward in time, for the elite to take our jobs, to take our homes, to run us all into the ditch economically?

Well, Brothers and Sisters, then I guess we won that damned war.  Not for you, not for me, but for the rich and powerful.

Money cannot buy votes unless we allow it to.  Voting rights cannot be taken away, unless we allow them to.  Jobs cannot be sent elsewhere, unless we allow them to.

As a veteran, I see "support our troops" slogans that mean nothing more than just that.......words, meaningless words.  What in hell are you supporting?  Do you even know?

When I shop and the clerk says: "Do you want to give your change to help buy school supplies for the military families kids?"  I think:  Why in hell isn't our supposedly grateful, government buying those school supplies?  Isn't the government their present employer?  Is American government the Wal-Mart of America now too?  Low wages, crap services and driving military families into poverty?  Shame on America for hiring military people to be their private mercenaries and not paying them well enough for the job.  Fighting for our freedoms you say?  Look again and guess again.

When I to to the VA for services, services are limited.  Yet when I served, my time was not limited, those men who died did not limit their service to the government.  Limited?  Well, the hell, you say!  

So young and itching to grow up

Funny, how we are so full of confidence at a young age

 It was the year 1966 and America was embroiled in a war in a place called Vietnam and either the world was beginning to act crazy or, as young boys trying to find our places in the world, it just seemed crazy to us.  The Vietnam War was on the daily news, race riots were also taking place in various areas of America and the National Guard units were being called out, often, to help keep the peace in many of the Southern states.  We just knew the world was changing, rapidly and we wanted to be able to find our places in it all. 

   Music was changing too and much of it was starting to reflect the opinions many young people were having toward the draft and the Vietnam War in the form of protest songs. The Beatles, a band from England, were popular.  We grew up watching TV with its daily news about American unrest, flights into space and of course, the Communist were coming, or so the news led us to believe. The draft was also in full bloom and young men were nervous at the prospect of being forced to fight a war they knew nothing about.  I know history calls it a conflict, but so many people were killed in Vietnam that it should be placed in the war category, not a conflict class.  I guess it can be summed up as an era of raging against the machine by the younger society.

So young, so proud of serving

  My best friend and I had had a lot in common, both of us had shared a feeling of growing tired of Indiana and we both thought our lives were pretty boring here.  I guess the move to Michigan was his way of getting away from the boredom.   I still couldn’t believe he was dead.  When some kids at school told me he had been killed, it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.  I ran my fingers through my hair, trying desperately to catch my breath. I even thought I'd misheard them at first.  I tried to glean more information from those guys but no one had any details other than he had been killed.  

Most of us kids didn't know a lot about death, certainly not the death of anyone so close to us.  We talked after school and made plans to go to Michigan to attend his funeral.  I think the trip was as much out of curiosity concerning death, as it was about paying our last respects.

My story

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