TheBanyanTree: Veterans Day 2010

[Sachet]

Well said, Russ. As always.

Thank you for serving your country so well.

On 11/11/2010 10:25 AM, Russ Doden wrote:
> Veterans Day 2010
>
> Every year it seems I have mixed emotions about Veterans Day.  In
> years past, it was a day that I viewed from my very distorted
> perspective as being a bit hypocritical.  You see, I’m one of the Vets
> of the Viet-Nam conflict era.  It was never a “War” just a “conflict”.
>   That doesn’t mean that massive numbers of people, both military and
> civilian (on both sides) weren’t killed, maimed or injured.  It just
> means that it was politically expedient to not “officially” call it a
> war.  Now we toss the word “war” about like confetti, with a war on
> drugs, a war on poverty, a war on . . . but that is another rant
> altogether.
>
> The reason I viewed this day as being a bit hypocritical was that when
> I was in the U.S. Navy during that conflict, being in the military was
> often not popular.  I still retain memories of being spit on and
> called “baby killer” when walking down the streets in uniform just
> before or after deployment to the Tonkin Gulf.  That fed my already
> confused mind as I really had no desire to be in the military in the
> first place.  I had enlisted to avoid the draft (which I did avoid, by
> one day).  I figured it was “safer” to be on a boat in some remote
> place on the globe, than on the ground some place being cannon fodder.
>
> For years I had this uneasy truce within myself.  I was a Vet, for
> better or worse, and that couldn’t be changed.  I was proud to have
> served, but was also ashamed of the way the government handed the
> whole mess.  I had a very biased viewpoint – and a very confused one.
> There were a lot of issues that I was trying to deal with in my own
> internal way.  I didn’t have PTSD (they didn’t even acknowledge such a
> beast back then), yet I did.  I lost friends, both officer and
> enlisted to that insanity.  I got to know a lot of people who
> physically “came home” but were mentally damaged, often seemingly
> beyond repair, and other times the damage only became visible in
> certain situations.  No one seemed to care.  My bias was due to the
> time when I became a “Vet”.
>
> I honored the WW1 and 2 Vets and looked up to them.  The same with the
> Korean “police action” Vets.  Later on, I honored the Desert Storm and
> all other vets since.  I honored them because society honored them.
> Viet-Nam era Vets were in limbo.  Then things began to change.  First,
> a “monument” was made to honor the Vets of that era.  A healing had
> begun for many of us, myself included.
>
> The biggest transformation came not from some government proclamation,
> or from any monument or award.  The biggest transformation came from
> the least expected direction.  It came from the people whom it could
> be argued included the greatest warriors our nation has ever known.
> These warriors, in my opinion, would rank up against any the world has
> known.  The people that had these warriors in their history and
> culture were the Native American people.  These people honored their
> warriors, and still do to this day.  These people have a history of
> needing warriors since 1492 and earlier.  A few were recognized, but
> not many.  After all, they were on the “losing side” and they were
> against the “government”.  Again, that is another rant for another
> time.
>
> I personally do not have any discernable Native American blood, which
> in Oklahoma is still the minority.  Many people here can claim some
> small percentage, 1/256th is still a percentage, no matter how small.
> There are a great many blond haired, blue eyed, people that can claim
> some degree of Native American heritage.  In spite of my lack of
> Native American lineage, when I started going to Pow-Wow’s here, I saw
> a culture that honored the warriors of the past and present.  The men
> and women in the military are given great honor.  For some reason I
> have been accepted into that community.  When I go to a Pow-Wow now, I
> wear some small token showing I’m a Vet, I walk taller, stand
> straighter, and hold my head a bit higher.   So, today, on this our
> Veterans Day, I salute and honor ALL Veterans, including those on the
> “losing side” for they fought just as hard and suffered just as much
> as those on the winning side.
>
>