Veterans Day 2012

Tomorrow will be Veterans Day and its seems like the last few days have been a lot of ads for free meals for Veterans, Veteran Day sales, thanking Veterans, etc. For me, I still feel awkward whenever I hear that rare thank you directed to me.  As a Vietnam Veteran I, and probably the majority of Vietnam Veterans, never received a thank you. For me, when it finally did, it came too late.

I don't think a day has ever passed that I have not thought of Vietnam, those I served with and those who were wounded or died. It is so burned into my memory and is part of my being. It is like time has really stood still and I remember it just like it was yesterday. I can't seem to think past that time and so much of me wants to be back there. I miss those I served with and shared  my life with. Nothing has ever been able to replace that or my feelings.

I was 20 when I got there and was really uneducated and naive. Thinking back I didn't even know what an Emergency Room (ER) was or did.. And there I was after few days in-country, with no medical training,  answering a radio regarding choppers bringing in the wounded and dead and doing whatever I could do to assist the doc's, nurses and medics. It was unimaginable what I saw and did at the 24th.

So here I am on the night before Veterans Day feeling so quilty that I am alive and not understanding why God let me live and did not spare someone else.

This Veteran's Day will be like those before where my mind will be flooded with memories of my brothers. You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I will never forget you.