This weekend and the world political climate bring special meaning to my life. For some reason, this weekend has more significance than other Memorial Day weekends, when before it was just another long weekend that marked the beginning of summer.
As I write this Taps is playing on TV as a news story marks a memorial service. I think back to my Dad, who served honorably in World War II. My uncles, James and Douglas also served then. I remember the 60's, and the Vietnam War. I lost quite a few classmates in that war. In that war, I also saw the casualties, as I spent time in a Veteran's Hospital in 1975 and 1976, I met many who gave a lot in a war that never was really won.
I'm a veteran, and quite a few of my former roommates were veterans. There was Don, a retired Major in the U.S. Air Force. He died at the age of 50, a veteran of multiple tours in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, and the Belgian Congo Crisis. He didn't die of wounds, unless you count the emotional scars of many flightd transporting bodies of young men in his trusty C-130 Hercules transport on that long flight from Vietnam to Hawaii. The horrors of war took their toll emotionally and alcohol claimed him physically.
Then there was Tom, another roommate and a veteran of Vietnam, serving as a tank repairman. He told of drinking himself at night till he passed out, it was his way of coping with the death that surrounded him in Vietnam. He was in the Army, he returned home, no jobs, no respect, and no real promise of a bright future. He spent years drinking, and it cost him jobs, and his family. He's still struggling to survive today, he is still under care of the VA.
I had it easy. I was in the Air Force. I had enrolled in college, and when the draft caught me I worked hard to avoid Vietnam. I spent from 1968 to 1969 in training, technical training in places like San Angelo Texas, and language training in Monterey California. I was lucky, the weekend of Woodstock I was at JFK boarding a plane to Europe. I was in military intelligence and this was the 'Cold War'. Only after starting work in this specialty, did I learn how factual information and truth are the first casulaties of war.
I feel for those who have not or will not see their sons or daughters because of global politics and political leadership that is willing to sacrifice our youth for questionable wars. I feel more for those who joined with patriotic fervor only to face the reality that they are struggling to return to a normal life taken from them by shrapnel, or by a single bullet. They should be honored for serving and not being afraid to pay the price. You cannot judge all veterans for the conduct of a few that have been in the headlines. They took an oath, they did their duty, no matter how unpleasant, to serve. I was in the military, but I opposed the war. Now I'm a veteran, and oppose war.
My prayers are with those who are anywhere where the fighting still rages. Hopefully we come to our senses and bring them home soon. You can fight to defend democracy, but it a value that cannot be imposed or exported. Any nation desiring to be a democracy must fight the fight themselves to say they earned it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
