Viet Nam (or other war) Vets, mind if I ask a question?

[ThomWV]

Can you remember much about it? I can't. I served 3 tours, '67 thru '70, and I can't remember much of anything about it. I know where I was, I know what I was doing, but as for specifics I can only recall a few incidents and none of them particularly horrific, except that I can remember the bad times happening but its just sort of a fog. Oh, and I can't remember people either; I could not possibly name more than about a half a dozen guys I served with. No flash-backs, nothing weird like that, just no memory. Oh, and what events I can remember I can't put in chronological order, its just things that happened but for the most part I don't know when.

Is it like that for any of you all?

[vadawg]

1. for me its dates, i can remember the weather (whether winter or summer) but specific dates no chance

also i remember my squad but apart from them everyone else just looks the same, i thought only i had this wierd thing going.

[TahitiNut]

2. I'm about the same. Like "blackout images" ... no sequence, just flash images.

Some events stand out but I spent too many years suppressing associations that I have gaps and scrambled recollections. I remember February 23-24 (and the attack) ... but not all or even most of it. I remember many scrambles for cover over that year, but just as random, disconnected events. I can reconstruct a mental 'map' of Long Binh and the day-to-day but I couldn't reconstruct any chronology.

The best metaphor I can come up with is it's like a bunch of snapshots on the floor, all mixed up.

Years and years of "not thinking about it" worked ... but I'll still have one or two episodes of disturbed sleep each year. That's a LOT less than it was in the 70s.

I can remember Pete, Jerry, and Larry ...but not many others. I can remember two of the mama-sans, but not others. I can only vaguely remember the Vietnamese barber. I can remember my hooch. I can only vaguely remember my office. I can vividly remember the bunker where I stood watch -- and where I was in the attack -- including exactly where the ammo, machine gun, claymore triggers, and grenade launcher was. I can only vaguely remember the area BEHIND the bunker, but almost every inch in front of it.

It's a hodge-podge ... but that's what I wonted, I guess. :shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

3. "I remember the great parties - Smirk" -xCommander AWOL (R)

[SpiralHawk]

5. "I remember having more important things to do - sneer" - Five-Deferments Cheney (R)

[SpiralHawk]

7. "I remember my ass pimple - fondly" - Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)

[vadawg]

8. cmon man, not everything has to become an attack ad

[mitchum]

10. Fuck that noise; chickenhawk warmongers richly deserve attacks...

until they draw their last fucking breaths

[vadawg]

11. yeah but mayby not on a thread were vets are talking about something outside of politics,

[BlooInBloo]

16. Nobody's being prevented from doing that, whiner.

[vadawg]

19. lol i know that you sure as hell wouldnt understand

[trof]

4. Never was in combat, but my recollections (SATA*) are much as you say.

*Such As They Are
7+ years as a pilot in ALAANG, '63-'71.
I experienced a few hairy incidents, and I remember them well.
But not necessarily in chronological order.

And my squadron mates and I were tight as can be back then.
Today, unless prompted, I can remember 3 or 4 names out of a few dozen guys who I was very close to for a time.
:eyes:
Maybe just a sign of age?

[Captain Hilts]

6. Three consecutive tours?!?!

[ThomWV]

18. Was back in the world for 4 months between 2 and 3

4 year enlistment, got out the day after (24 hours to process) I got home from tour 3. One and two were back to back.

[Glorfindel]

9. Not at all. I remember an incredible amount of it with great clarity

I was in Vietnam for a year, Dec 66 through Dec 67, and not close to any fighting. Nha Trang was not exactly a hardship post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nha_Trang

[msedano]

12. i put in my time in korea, 69-70

and remember people and incidents. the only "date" i remember is the first moon landing. it was my first day at bravo battery.

bravo memories: http://www.readraza.com/hawk/index.htm

AIT memories: http://readraza.com/ftordradioschool.htm

One AIT night, don't know the date: http://www.readraza.com/jnwynmo.htm

A few good Vietnam novels include
Alfredo Vea, Gods Go Begging.
Charlie Trujillo, Dogs from Illusion.
Daniel Cano, Shifting Loyalties.

An oral history, Trujillo's Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam.

Bibliographic details here: http://readraza.com/spirits.htm#bibliography

By the way, welcome home and a belated thanks for your service.

mvs

[JimWis]

13. Seems to be the same as the rest of you. Remember events

but can't put them in chronological order. When I think of something that happened, I can't remember which one came first, second, etc. Remember many faces plain as day, but can't remember the names. Only a few. I remember the Tet offensive. I can look that date up, so I remember it was shortly after I got in country. Otherwise I wouldn't know what part of my year that happened in. Maybe that is the same in trying to remember anything back that far. It's the same deal with other places I was stationed other than Vietnam.

[UTUSN]

14. Mostly. Beyond that, I was on a ship. But down INSIDE the rivers on an LST

Yes, the ship was nearly a football field in length but EASILY fit down the rivers of the Mekong Delta.

Anyway, I was a common seaman, a lowly Deck ape, so I obviously didn't know anything about the Big Picture of what was going on.

We got hit by rockets on 3 different days during my year and were on armed Watch all the time, but whatever was going on in the outside world was a total mystery.

During the day we chipped paint, primed, and painted out rust spots or cleaned the bilges or loaded the pallets of supplies the ship carried.

Then after 30 days' leave (vacation) between ships, I went to my second ship. I had 2 1/2 years AFTER Vietnam when I was *still* INSULATED from the outside world. Forget the internet, we didn't have t.v. or phones.

I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE of the moon landing. (No, I'm not an anti-moon-landing conspiracy theorist.) There is a GAP of four years in what I know of popular culture.

[michreject]

15. I remember it

like it was yesterday.

[old mark]

17. I got divorced when I was in the Army, and a buddy really helped me

to try to deal with it and get going again. I remember his first name, but mostly I don't remember even the names of most of the people I worked with.

Remember small parts of some incidents, but not much else.

mark

[vadawg]

20. my wife finds it interesting that when i do talk to her its always smells i remember

i guess the sense of smell is most easily remembered, i couldnt tell you for the life of mewhat the dude next to me's name was but i remember all the stuff i could smell.

[old mark]

24. Much of what I remember readily has to do with eating.....

some of that is not very good, some is pretty funny, although probably was not at the time.


mark

[kentuck]

21. I remember...

a lot of things about Viet Nam. I remember friends that I had met there, even though we never stayed in touch after getting out. I remember different places. I remember the rain and the heat and the wet, green towels. I remember always sleeping on the edge and never being able to sleep normally after returning. I remember the different smells from the villages. I remember the deuce and a half. I remember the F-4 and how loud they were overhead. I remember the soi and the banana trees. I remember a lot of stuff but nothing is always prevalent in my mind, only if I bring it up...

[madokie]

22. I spent 15 months in country 'Nam, 6 '69 - 10 '70

and can hardly remember any of it now. Oh I remember some parts as a whole but little details very little. I remember some things that one would think that a person would never forget, such as the aborted baby in the middle of an intersection due to the mother being run over by a duce and a half or the Vietnamese soldier who bailed out of a plane that his chute didn't open or the night the Viet Cong over ran our base with us taking out a few of them before it was all said and done but the day to day I don't. I came home for a thirty day leave during August of '70 and for the life of me I don't remember anything I done during that month. I'm sure I spent the whole month trying to and getting laid but thats a given considering everything I'd just been through, my age and all. OTOH I do remember slipping off to the village to spend some quality time with the Vietnamese people themselves, the food etc. I made many friends and can remember the faces and what we called each other but not any of the names, well some names but not necessarily the proper spelling so it's been hard for me to try to connect with any of my old buddies. I still haven't seen the Wall and it's because about two weeks upon my leaving 'Nam our base was over ran by the VC once again with a couple dozen casualities and I down deep inside don't want to remember any of my friends there as being on the Wall. In other words I haven't come to grips with that 15 months of my life, 16 if you count the month I came home for R & R. I've had a couple flash backs but it's been a while since I have had one now. I think that what little I've talked about the war here has help me tremendously.

I came away from this experience knowing full well that War is never the answer, that killing is never right, no matter the might.

I feel so sad for the Iraqi people as I see this war as I see the Vietnam war, a war we should never have entered into. The people were not our enemys. Today when I see a Vietnamese I am flooded with emotions like I want to go up to them and give them a big hug for forgiving me for what our country had done, the proof of by their coming here to live. I fell in love with the poeple soon upon ariving incountry and still love them today. It took me every bit of a couple days or so to see that what we were doing there was not right so that left me with all the rest of the time trying to make it up to them as best I could at the time.

I take great comfort in thinking that I know that the Vietnamese are the most successful ethnic group to ever immigrate to these shores as a whole. I read that somewhere back when and it's stuck with me ever since. If this last statement I said here is not true please don't tell me as I like the way I feel about that now.

Oh and thanks to you and all the other Vets for helping to get my okie ass back home in pretty much one piece as that means a lot to me now.


May peace always be with you and with all of my brothers and sisters from that time, the time I wish I could have overs on.

[cliffordu]

23. I remember a couple incidents ok , but you're right -I can't remember

the names of more than three or four guys I served with and don't remember ANY of their faces.

The chronology is completely fucked up, too.

I remembered those fucking powdered eggs, though.

[Bandit]

25. It was over forty years ago, I don't remember much from that period no matter where I was.

I do remember a lot of bits and pieces though.