Blog 789 – 09.29.2017

Vietnam

As I write this blog someone in Vietnam just took a look at one of my blogs. Remarkable. Forty-seven years ago I was in Vietnam as a nineteen almost twenty year old U.S. Army Specialist Fifth Class. This passed week I watched Ken Burns wonderful multipart series on Vietnam. I recommend it to all who have differing opinions. He covers them all quite well but presents a full and compelling story – a story of truths, of lies, of courage, of cowardice, of hopelessness and of hope – Vietnam.

When I see a guy wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap I always say, “Welcome home, brother.” They held no parades for us when we came home and more than fifty thousand of us did in flag draped boxes. A million Vietnamese soldiers died and over two and a half million Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children. “War is hell.” U.S. Civil War General Sherman said, so true. War is never civil, the war in Vietnam was not nor, the way it divided our country and our world.

Eleven months I was “in country” living at Tan Son Nhut Airbase and working for the most part  at a communications center in Saigon. The only “action” I saw in Vietnam was the movie Patton at the base NCO Club. I tell everyone that I was “guided, guarded, and protected.” I have come to believe that I always have been, still am, and always will be. I was never shot at nor shot at anyone. Even the several late night missile attack alerts turned out to be false alarms, actually called by hungry mosquitoes I do believe. Mine is no heroic war story just a tale about a homesick boy writing home to a wife and mother daily to assure them that I was healthy, safe, and would be coming home as soon as I could. My also quite young little wife could not wait and found comfort elsewhere. My mother never forgave her but I did. We should have waited to marry till I got back. Sometimes things do not work out as we plan, but I have no regrets about my past. It is gone and my today is bright and shiny for me, not haunted by ghosts from the past or scary premonitions of an apocalyptic future. As the old country song says, “It’s such a pretty world today. Look at the sunshine.”

Most of us who went to Vietnam hoped to help. Those who fought at home against the war hoped also to help. On that, if not much else about Vietnam, most of us can agree, but it’s a start. One of the worst things about war is that for too many people it never seems to end. The hatred and horror goes deeper than most scars and often does not fade with time as scars do but continues to inflame the mind, imagination and take its toll on the body. How are we supposed to forgive and forget the horrible acts of others or ourselves? We do it when we change our minds, when we see things as they really were and not the way we thought they were. When we honestly look at what really happened, we can lay the hype, the hatred, and the horror aside. What is done is done. All that truly matters is what we think, what we do today. I can hear the children singing “War is over,” It is for me, as it was with Chief Joseph, the wise, war-worn, First People’s Chief. I swear I will study war no more.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White