Thank you, sir, but I have to say that I didn't enlist for altruistic reasons! Like many of the young guys of that era, I enlisted to get the hell outa Dodge, and I couldn't have shown you Vietnam on a map.....
But most of those young guys came back better than they went, and so did I, I think and hope.... Sometimes the stereotype of the drug-crazed, freaked out Vietnam Veteran makes me gnash my teeth in anger....most of us weren't that way. I had some trouble, but not much, and I got through school on the G.I. Bill, got my first serious job with my veteran's preference, and bought my first home with a veteran's guaranteed loan. I consider the government and me to be equal and even, all "faired-up." The guys to honor, of course, are the ones who weren't lucky enough to get back.... those that fill the veterans's cemeteries from coast to coast, those who molder in unmarked graves all over the earth...... And thank you for your service, sir..... a Navy Seal once told me, "all service is honorable," and if anyone should know that -- it's a Navy Seal. Anybody who raises his right hand and pledges to protect his country with his life, whether a cook or an 11-bravo, whether a Seal or a truck driver, anyone who serves either during war or peace, is honorable, and worthy of respect. MHO only....
