| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Terry Garlock - Sometimes the herd is wrong |
| 2019-01-30 |
| [The Citizen] Well into the autumn of my life, I am occasionally reminded the end is not too far over the horizon. Mortality puts thoughts in my head, like, "What have I done to leave this world a better place?" There actually are a few things that I think made my existence worthwhile. I will tell you just one of them, because so many of you need to hear it. No matter how much this rubs the wrong way, I am quite proud to have served my country in the Vietnam War. Yes, I know, most of you were taught there is shame attached to any role in the war that America lost, an unfortunate mistake, an immoral war, an unwise intrusion into a civil war, a racist war, a war in which American troops committed widespread atrocities, where America had no strategic interest, and that our North Vietnamese enemy was innocently striving to re-unite Vietnam. The problem is, none of those things is true. That didn’t stop America over the last 50 years lapping up this Kool-Aid concocted by the anti-war machine, a loose confederation of protesting activists, the mainstream news media and academia. They opposed the war with loud noise, half-truths and fabrications. They are the ones who still write their version in our schoolbooks, and their account of history conveniently excuses themselves for cowardly encouraging our enemy while we were at war. You see, having the right to protest does not necessarily make it the right or honorable thing to do. So, yes, I am defiantly proud to have been among those who raised our right hand swearing to do our duty for our country while so many others yelled and screamed and marched, burned their draft cards, declared, "Hell, no! I won’t go!" and some fled to Canada. In that period of uncomfortable controversy, even patriots tended to look the other way when activists heartily insulted American troops as they returned through California airports from doing the country’s hardest work in Vietnam. War correspondent Joe Galloway summed it up nicely in a column about Vietnam vets in the Chicago Tribune long ago; "They were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them." To be sure, there were lots of warts and wrinkles in the war. We were fighting a tough Communist enemy, defending South Vietnam’s right to remain free. At the same time we were betrayed by our own leadership in the White House with their incompetent micromanagement and idiotic war-fighting limitations that got thousands of us killed while preventing victory. And we were betrayed by fellow citizens encouraging our enemy. I was trained to be an Army Cobra helicopter pilot. I remember many times, with no regrets, shooting up the enemy to protect our ground troops, firing to cover fellow pilots, and firing to keep the brutal enemy away from South Vietnamese civilians. A high school student asked me last year how I deal with the guilt. I answered that I don’t have any guilt, that I was doing my duty and would proudly do it again. Continues |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Yes, well said. I had forgotten that it was the Dems who had control then and refused to honor our commitments. Honor is not in their vocabulary. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2019-01-30 12:12 |
| #2 At the same time we were betrayed by our own leadership..... Yes, I too am detecting a certain pattern. After 60+ years of observation, one should notice a thing or two. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-01-30 07:41 |
| #1 Well said. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-01-30 07:33 |