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Vietnam poser (?)
- Thread starter GSG
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![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
![[rofl]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/013.gif "ROFL [rofl]")
Warren Zevon wrote a song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner. He worked "for" the CIA in '66 and '67 but they blew off his head because he was the best with the Thompson.
Awesome song, by the way. RIP Mr. Zevon.
Awesome song, by the way. RIP Mr. Zevon.
Years ago I had a job interview at Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, NM., with a company called EG&G.
After a good interview with the Lead Engineers I was told the job was mine if I wanted it, and that someone from HR would call me the next day.
I showed up the next morning and was interviewed by a young lady.
"Well, Mr. Rowland, I have talked with the Chief Engineer and he is anxious to get you on board. Just give me a few minutes to review your resume and we will discuss an offer."
So she is flipping pages in the file, mumbles something along the lines of "very impressive". Then she say's to me....
"Oh, I see you are a Vietnam Veteran, I never would have thought that!"
The chip on my shoulder starting rocking, and I got a bit pissed. "What do you mean by that?" I asked.
She realized she said the wrong thing and started half-stepping....."Well, um, it's just that.....well, you know. I had a brother that was in Vietnam, and he came home all messed up, if you know what I mean.
And some of the other Vietnam Vet's I know also had a hard time adjusting to life when they came home. It was such a terrible war for nothing...you know what I mean."
I lost it......I started shaking. I had to get out of there before I exploded......I stood up and took my coat off the chair.
I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I knew a lot of fine men who did an Outstanding job in Vietnam. And they didn't get 'messed-up' in Vietnam! They got 'messed-up' when they came home because of they way people like you treated them!"
So, I kissed off a great job. But I walked out of there with my head held high!
I got several calls later that day from the Cheif Engineer, but everytime I saw his number I started shaking again and couldn't pick up the phone.
I wonder how she explained to him what happened.
After a good interview with the Lead Engineers I was told the job was mine if I wanted it, and that someone from HR would call me the next day.
I showed up the next morning and was interviewed by a young lady.
"Well, Mr. Rowland, I have talked with the Chief Engineer and he is anxious to get you on board. Just give me a few minutes to review your resume and we will discuss an offer."
So she is flipping pages in the file, mumbles something along the lines of "very impressive". Then she say's to me....
"Oh, I see you are a Vietnam Veteran, I never would have thought that!"
The chip on my shoulder starting rocking, and I got a bit pissed. "What do you mean by that?" I asked.
She realized she said the wrong thing and started half-stepping....."Well, um, it's just that.....well, you know. I had a brother that was in Vietnam, and he came home all messed up, if you know what I mean.
And some of the other Vietnam Vet's I know also had a hard time adjusting to life when they came home. It was such a terrible war for nothing...you know what I mean."
I lost it......I started shaking. I had to get out of there before I exploded......I stood up and took my coat off the chair.
I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I knew a lot of fine men who did an Outstanding job in Vietnam. And they didn't get 'messed-up' in Vietnam! They got 'messed-up' when they came home because of they way people like you treated them!"
So, I kissed off a great job. But I walked out of there with my head held high!
I got several calls later that day from the Cheif Engineer, but everytime I saw his number I started shaking again and couldn't pick up the phone.
I wonder how she explained to him what happened.
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Fixxah
NES Member
My apologies for posting in your forum ladies and gentlemen but I just wanted to say what I feel is how many feel about vets.
Since I was a boy there was a man (I still see him on a weekly basis) in fatigues who walked with a well trained german shepard. He never said a word to anyone about anything. The kids in the neighborhood called him Gorgeous George and Fancy Francis. I have no idea what his name is but I do know that he served in Vietnam and trained dogs that saved lives. At the time I was 8 or 9 years old with no understanding of what the hippies and freaks were doing to vets when they came back to what was once home. Seeing daily reports on TV with my Dad frightened the shit out of me. I always thought my father was going to war and I would have to take care of the family.
I never knew of the spitting and accusations of baby killing until middle school. I always had great respect for anyone who signed away their life for their country not knowing if they would never come home or not. My feeling now is that today's vets are getting the well earned praise for themselves and those who should have received it back in the 70s. You will always be in my heart and prayers (not a church guy, but HE knows I believe) until I draw my last breath. Never again should ANY vet get the cold shoulder for helping to save this country from those who try to do us harm.
The next time I see the vet who was the trainer, I am going to thank him and if he wishes to tell me anything, I am all ears.
Thank you all for my freedom.
Since I was a boy there was a man (I still see him on a weekly basis) in fatigues who walked with a well trained german shepard. He never said a word to anyone about anything. The kids in the neighborhood called him Gorgeous George and Fancy Francis. I have no idea what his name is but I do know that he served in Vietnam and trained dogs that saved lives. At the time I was 8 or 9 years old with no understanding of what the hippies and freaks were doing to vets when they came back to what was once home. Seeing daily reports on TV with my Dad frightened the shit out of me. I always thought my father was going to war and I would have to take care of the family.
I never knew of the spitting and accusations of baby killing until middle school. I always had great respect for anyone who signed away their life for their country not knowing if they would never come home or not. My feeling now is that today's vets are getting the well earned praise for themselves and those who should have received it back in the 70s. You will always be in my heart and prayers (not a church guy, but HE knows I believe) until I draw my last breath. Never again should ANY vet get the cold shoulder for helping to save this country from those who try to do us harm.
The next time I see the vet who was the trainer, I am going to thank him and if he wishes to tell me anything, I am all ears.
Thank you all for my freedom.
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
dustoff22
NES Member
Skysoldier....a most compelling story you have. Thank you for your service and believe me, I understand what you're saying and how you felt then and no doubt feel today. I got into it a few years back with the author and teacher at Holy Cross I believe, Jerry Lembke, who made many disparaging remarks about how Vietnam Veterans were treated upon coming home. He like a couple other professor dweebs either felt the need to kick us in the agates or, in the case of a couple now disgraced professors, be one of us in disguise as wannabe's. Ain't it a travesty though?
Thing is, despite all the left wing anti-Vietnam facts and figures, which showed the Vietnam Veteran to be a downtroddened loser, I have read statistics which quite honestly say the contrary. My belief is that the Vietnam Veteran is better educated and better adjusted (believe it or not) than his military predecessors. Most Vietnam Vets I know are well adjusted and have been successful. Saying that, I have a few friends, some still alive and some deceased, who have had a hard go of it but overall, I tend to firmly believe the positive statistics.
It's been an interesting road for Vietnam Vets since Vietnam. As understanding as my wife is, she'll occasionally tell me "to get over it" which I find difficult to do. I believe most Vietnam Vets feel somewhat similar.
The good...no, great thing is that our current Vets are getting some positive attention for the most part except for our panty waist government's treatment of some who are in jail cells for committing supposedly heinous crimes. I have my doubts that anyone prosecuting these combat soldiers have even been in a situation where their agates were in a vice. It totally changes the picture.
I flew Dustoff in Vietnam (medical evacuation) and on occasion would resupply ordinance to units in need, particularly in the middle of the night when their own support aircraft wouldn't respond (in conjunction with a medevac). I was told by one Vietnam Veteran REMF that I should have been court-martialed. Go figure. Yes, it was against the accords of the Geneva Convention which the other side did not concern itself with. His suggestion was that I should have taken the "high road". I took the road that my conscience told me to take. I couldn't live with myself if I'd done otherwise. It's just a bunch of BS to think that we wouldn't COMPLETELY support one another. After all, even in Vietnam we knew our own government was playing a game of chess and we were the cannon fodder aka pawns.
Thing is, despite all the left wing anti-Vietnam facts and figures, which showed the Vietnam Veteran to be a downtroddened loser, I have read statistics which quite honestly say the contrary. My belief is that the Vietnam Veteran is better educated and better adjusted (believe it or not) than his military predecessors. Most Vietnam Vets I know are well adjusted and have been successful. Saying that, I have a few friends, some still alive and some deceased, who have had a hard go of it but overall, I tend to firmly believe the positive statistics.
It's been an interesting road for Vietnam Vets since Vietnam. As understanding as my wife is, she'll occasionally tell me "to get over it" which I find difficult to do. I believe most Vietnam Vets feel somewhat similar.
The good...no, great thing is that our current Vets are getting some positive attention for the most part except for our panty waist government's treatment of some who are in jail cells for committing supposedly heinous crimes. I have my doubts that anyone prosecuting these combat soldiers have even been in a situation where their agates were in a vice. It totally changes the picture.
I flew Dustoff in Vietnam (medical evacuation) and on occasion would resupply ordinance to units in need, particularly in the middle of the night when their own support aircraft wouldn't respond (in conjunction with a medevac). I was told by one Vietnam Veteran REMF that I should have been court-martialed. Go figure. Yes, it was against the accords of the Geneva Convention which the other side did not concern itself with. His suggestion was that I should have taken the "high road". I took the road that my conscience told me to take. I couldn't live with myself if I'd done otherwise. It's just a bunch of BS to think that we wouldn't COMPLETELY support one another. After all, even in Vietnam we knew our own government was playing a game of chess and we were the cannon fodder aka pawns.
The Viet Nam vets I served with were the ones I learned the most from.![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
![[puke]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/023.gif "Puke [puke]")
I can't remember when the Dustoff didn't bring out food water and ammunition before taking the wounded back.....tell that REMF he was full of shit, and didn't know what it was all about!
Happy B-Day Depicts.
My Dad never spoke about mission specifics really. He was in Cu-Chi from 67 to 68. He was a Helicopter Crew Chief and door gunner. He was at the 269th CAB headquarters (the HQ that directly over miles of enemy tunnels). When he first came home my mom said he used to get up in the morning and walk outside in a towel. When firetrucks came down the street he would hit the deck. He always slept with on foot hanging out of his bed, always sat in the farthest spot from the door facing the door no matter where we were.
He talked more way back when he used to drink. I remember when I was about 12 or 13 he was drinking with someone else who was in Vietnam, they had some pretty spirited discussions, argued and even yelled at each other a bit. After a while the talking died down and they just sat there, tears in their eyes. I didn't understand anything back then, now the memory of that sight puts tears in mine. When he stopped drinking we never really heard anything about Vietnam at all. The only thing we heard after that was rarely some light banter about shenanigans at the base, practical jokes, etc.
After he passed away last Veteran's Day a couple guys from his unit contacted me and sent me some pictures of he and 4 others going out on patrol with M-14's. I always wanted to know more but I knew that the questions just dig up things he didn't want to see, so I stopped asking. It kinda eats at me now that I don't know more details. All I have now are those memories, and some faded black and white pictures of him walking across the base in nothing but a towel and a pistol belt with revolvers, aerial shots of rice paddies, downtown somewhere, his monkey (somehow he ended up with a monkey), and other misc. shots. The guys that contacted me said he was funny, that's when I knew that they knew him cause he could be really funny. He knew more jokes than I could ever have imagined.
My dad is the one on the far right standing off the wooden path with his arms out.
My Dad never spoke about mission specifics really. He was in Cu-Chi from 67 to 68. He was a Helicopter Crew Chief and door gunner. He was at the 269th CAB headquarters (the HQ that directly over miles of enemy tunnels). When he first came home my mom said he used to get up in the morning and walk outside in a towel. When firetrucks came down the street he would hit the deck. He always slept with on foot hanging out of his bed, always sat in the farthest spot from the door facing the door no matter where we were.
He talked more way back when he used to drink. I remember when I was about 12 or 13 he was drinking with someone else who was in Vietnam, they had some pretty spirited discussions, argued and even yelled at each other a bit. After a while the talking died down and they just sat there, tears in their eyes. I didn't understand anything back then, now the memory of that sight puts tears in mine. When he stopped drinking we never really heard anything about Vietnam at all. The only thing we heard after that was rarely some light banter about shenanigans at the base, practical jokes, etc.
After he passed away last Veteran's Day a couple guys from his unit contacted me and sent me some pictures of he and 4 others going out on patrol with M-14's. I always wanted to know more but I knew that the questions just dig up things he didn't want to see, so I stopped asking. It kinda eats at me now that I don't know more details. All I have now are those memories, and some faded black and white pictures of him walking across the base in nothing but a towel and a pistol belt with revolvers, aerial shots of rice paddies, downtown somewhere, his monkey (somehow he ended up with a monkey), and other misc. shots. The guys that contacted me said he was funny, that's when I knew that they knew him cause he could be really funny. He knew more jokes than I could ever have imagined.
My dad is the one on the far right standing off the wooden path with his arms out.
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dustoff22
NES Member
Rattletrap........your dad and I crossed paths many times no doubt. I was in CuChi during 67-68 often flying with the 159th Medical Detachment during the times they'd lose some folks and aircraft and couldn't handle the load. Sorry to hear of his passing and more sorry that you don't have decent closure. A whole lot of Vietnam Veterans I know are still stigmatized by Vietnam and perhaps moreso by the country they came home to. It was anything but friendly for some time following that friggin war. There is certainly no solution to your situation except to cherish what you have. Best wishes.
Happy Birthday Depicts!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday Depicts!!!!!!!
In God We Trust
NES Member
My opinion is this: I have some cool, off the wall (and true) stories. The couple that seem like they would be bragging, exaggerated tall tales, I don't tell to people unless I get to know them well and then I try to have a witness or some sort of proof on hand. I don't want people to think I am a liar.
The worst part about having a threesome with jenna jamison and jennifer aniston is the fact that you could never tell anyone about it unless you have video taped proof. If I was in the CIA I would not talk about it except with close friends, and I would have somthing to back up my claims.
The worst part about having a threesome with jenna jamison and jennifer aniston is the fact that you could never tell anyone about it unless you have video taped proof. If I was in the CIA I would not talk about it except with close friends, and I would have somthing to back up my claims.
GSG, I slept with my boots on. We got rocketed at night so often, I too got used to sleeping with one or both feet hanging out of the bed so the monsoon mud wouldn't get on my blanket. Often we would be hit at night, have to go to a reaction position or a defensive patrol, and then after the all clear,, you'd stumble back to bed tired and glad the rockets stopped falling. No sense in taking the boots off though, as we could be hit with another rocket any minute, and often it went on night after night for weeks at a time.
dustoff22
NES Member
GSG........this was our home at Lai Khe in the middle of a rubber plantation for which Uncle Sam paid dearly you can be sure. Our tents each had sand bagged bunkers adjacent to them from which you'd slide out of your bunk into the bunker. It's one thing in the daytime during the dry season to get into the bunkers (which were dug out several feet down) and another during rain or worse the monsoon season when the bunkers would be chock full of water and mud speak nothing of snakes and scorpions. Thing is, when the rockets and mortars started falling, you didn't really have a choice unless you were foolish and didn't give a shit.
GSG........this was our home at Lai Khe in the middle of a rubber plantation for which Uncle Sam paid dearly you can be sure. Our tents each had sand bagged bunkers adjacent to them from which you'd slide out of your bunk into the bunker. It's one thing in the daytime during the dry season to get into the bunkers (which were dug out several feet down) and another during rain or worse the monsoon season when the bunkers would be chock full of water and mud speak nothing of snakes and scorpions. Thing is, when the rockets and mortars started falling, you didn't really have a choice unless you were foolish and didn't give a shit.
Nice picture dustoff. I have to admit I did one of those real dumb things once in awhile. After one series of rocketing night after night for days of no sleep, the incomming started on night, 122's, and I pulled my sleeping bag and poncho over me and just stayed in the hooch. f*** it, a direct hit in the bunker I'd be dead too. I was too tired to go out into the mud.
dustoff22
NES Member
"I have to admit I did one of those real dumb things once in awhile. After one series of rocketing night after night for days of no sleep, the incomming started on night, 122's, and I pulled my sleeping bag and poncho over me and just stayed in the hooch. f*** it, a direct hit in the bunker I'd be dead too. I was too tired to go out into the mud."
I hear ya barkin! I must admit I didn't always make it into the bunker....usually because I'd fall off my bunk in a drunken stupor onto the pallets and think I was where I was supposed to be.
I hear ya barkin! I must admit I didn't always make it into the bunker....usually because I'd fall off my bunk in a drunken stupor onto the pallets and think I was where I was supposed to be.
M60
NES Member
Anybody ever go out on ambush and sit with your but on the ground,knees up and back against the guy in back of you during monsoon so you could watch each others backs and not wake up drowning when you finally did get a chance to sleep?
Memories.......amazing how they all come back like it was yesterday.......the agony of a full rucksack at the start of a mission, so heavy you had to bend over because if you stood up straight you would fall backwards on your ass.......constantly shifting your water bags to ease the pain.....humping all day, and ambush or LP duty all night........two weeks out in hell and your reward back at the Firebase was a ribeye steak and a case of warm beer.....maybe a letter from home, maybe not......lifer's in the rear sitting on their fat asses and living in luxury.......wondering how many hills you have to hump before you get your R&R......
leeches, bugs, snakes, lizards and those goddamn monkeys trying to steal your shit......jungle rot, heat rash in your crotch and boils on your ass the size of golf balls...........
But those goddamn rucksacks......constantly shifting the contents to try and balance the weight each day.......your whole life was in that rucksack....and you hated it.....
leeches, bugs, snakes, lizards and those goddamn monkeys trying to steal your shit......jungle rot, heat rash in your crotch and boils on your ass the size of golf balls...........
But those goddamn rucksacks......constantly shifting the contents to try and balance the weight each day.......your whole life was in that rucksack....and you hated it.....
and foot rot
Sky, while you were humping in the wet... and lumber too I guess, I had the fortunate chance to bunk near a generator, so we had electricity, most of the time. Good thing, I needed a plug for my Stereo, even though the only album I had then (kids read CD) was the Beatles White album.
Sky, while you were humping in the wet... and lumber too I guess, I had the fortunate chance to bunk near a generator, so we had electricity, most of the time. Good thing, I needed a plug for my Stereo, even though the only album I had then (kids read CD) was the Beatles White album.
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lumber, welcome to the forum.
One of my greatest fears was falling asleep on a night position in the bush. Didn't happen often that's for sure.
Hey Bill......I think we should kidnap Lumber soon and get him drunk.....
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
But it will have to wait till I get back..
