This Memorial Day · PACKERSHOME

vikesrule
Registered Topic Starter

14 years ago

For 38 years I have spoken very little to anyone about details of my time in Vietnam.

So this Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal side of what this day means to me.

The following is a brief story of a group of young men, circa 1970 -1971.
Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron THREE, was a rapid reaction armed helicopter squadron commissioned in the US Navy, to provide close air support for the Navy's forces in operations in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.
In addition, HAL 3 gave air support for landing craft, provided armed reconnaissance and support to special mission groups such as the US Navy's Sea, Air, Land Forces (SEAL Teams).
HAL 3 has the distinction of being the most highly decorated squadron in US Naval history.

We were very young, gung-ho, brave....and yes, sometimes scared shitless.
I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes after returning from a fire support mission, when the adrenaline wore off, that my hands would shake uncontrollably.

I would like to share with you a personal part of my life and some of the men that I flew with, drank with, laughed with, and went into combat with.

The following is a list of my brothers-in-arms that I knew , that went to Vietnam, but never returned home.

William A Pedersen LTJG - Killed in Action, September 15th , 1970
Jose Pablo Ramos ADJ3 - Killed in Action, September 15th , 1970
Lawrence Leroy Cover LCDR - Killed in Action, September 20th, 1970
Walter Ray Winters ATR2 - Killed in Action, October 3rd 1970
Richard Howard Buzzell LTJG - Killed in Action, December 17th, 1970
Harold Edward Cowen AMS1 - Killed in Action, December 17th, 1970
Antonio Olivarez Ortiz LTJG - Killed in Action, December 19th , 1970
Johnny Ratliff AEC - Killed in Action, December 19th , 1970
Robert Earl Worth ADJ2 - Killed in Action, December 19th 1970
James Arthur Wall AO3 - Killed in Action, April 19th 1971
Arnold Winfield Barden LTJG - Killed in Action, September 20th, 1971
Charles Henry Goldbin ADJ2 - Killed in Action, September 20th, 1971

These are some of the men that Memorial Day is all about.

Whenever I am in Washington DC, I go the Wall and touch their names. It may sound strange, but for a brief moment it is if they are there with me.

I was especially close to Jim wall, a true friend. There is not a Memorial Day that goes by that I do not think of him a great deal.
He was 2 months shy of his 21st birthday when he was killed on a night time fire support / insertion mission.
He left behind an 18 month old daughter.

Below is a picture of some of us.
Jim Wall is on the right side (with his arm resting on the machine gun)
Three of the young men in this picture were Killed in Action.
I am the one kneeling in the lower left (with the dog tag).

Even after almost 40 years I have not, nor will I ever, forget you.

I ask all of you, regardless of your political beliefs, to join me today and take a moment to remember and honor these young men and the thousands of other young men and women that gave their all for our country.

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Formo
Veteran Member

14 years ago

No words I can ever muster that would properly express my gratitude. To say it's one of the highests honor to be able to salute and thank men like you guys, would be a gross understatement.

Thank you, as well as everyone that is currently, and has in the past, served for our country.

Thanks to TheViking88 for the sig!!

Rockmolder
Honored Member

14 years ago

Wow, Nick, that is quite a way to show your respect for these men. It must've been very hard to keep going back into that war. I'm glad you shared this, as it is a good way to see what these people (Who you, Foster-Dave and, more recently, Nonstop are among) have given up for us.

Memorial Day has already been here (4th of May), but this makes it more, real, although I'll never know what they, or you, have been through.

I also admire you for going back and fishing this up, to keep their memory alive.

Formo
Veteran Member

14 years ago

I found this today, on Facebook... It is way better than I could have put it.

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien
USMC

Thanks to TheViking88 for the sig!!

Zero2Cool
Elite Member

14 years ago

Thank you for this thread. Sometimes fear we take our freedom for granted and it takes things like this to remind us that freedom is not free.

longtimefan
Registered

14 years ago

3 pm local time is the time you should have a moment of silence.

THANKS TO EVERYONE HERE THAT DEFENDED OUR COUNTRY

longtimefan
Registered

14 years ago

My dad served in WW2, but did not talk to much about it..Not sure but he is not the type to go on about it..I probably only heard him talk about it for 30 minutes oat the most in my 41 years

My ex-g/f grandfather was a different story..

He told stories all the time, he was in the 1st or 2nd wave on Normandy ( I never can recall) and just the descriptions he gave of that day still haunts him. He said the movie saving private Ryan hit the nail on the head for their opening scene at Normandy

He told a story of how he was directing traffic(?? not sure of thats correct but I recall that for some reason) one time after Normandy.....After a while of doing this, there appeared a sniper in a church tower..

He tried to get cover and alert everyone around what was happening, when he saw a tank coming, he got the attention of the tank pointed to the tower and next thing he knew the church tower was blown away..nothing left of it..

Stevetarded
Registered

14 years ago

http://www.militarycity.com/valor/2542608.html

a good friend of mine that I served with in the Marines that was killed in Iraq.

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RaiderPride
Senior Member

14 years ago

I am spending my day truly respecting all of you on this board that served, and all of you that have children in uniform today.

I will also pay my respects for the 58,151 lost in "The Nam" and S.E. Asia.

The 4,300 and counting who gave their lives in Iraq.

The 405,399 who lost their lives in WWII

The 625,000 boys who died in The Civil War.

The 116,516 in WWI

The 36,516 KIA in Korea.

The 25,000 that died in the Revolutionary War, and the 20,000 who perished in The War of 1812.

It will be difficult for me... But I will pray for the 918 U.S. Soldiers killed in the Indian Wars of 1865 to 1898. I will have no difficulty praying for the Thousands upon thousands of TRUE AMERICAN NATIVES who were killed in that same war but get no respect or even a death count in most American War Stats.

I will pay my respect for Davy Crocket and the 13,282 other Americans who died in the Mexican American War.

I guess it is true.

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. "

""People Will Probably Never Remember What You Said, And May Never Remember What You Did. However, People Will Always Remember How You Made Them Feel."

vegOmatic
Registered

14 years ago

#10

"vikesrule" wrote:

Certainly doesn't look like the movies; drugged-up losers who didn't care about themselves and everyone around them.

The ironic thing now, I know someone who has been going to Vietnam to do photography. The war is long forgotten there and they are very capitalistic; they would embrace America to invest in business ventures.

Thanks to all vets.

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