[ Post a Response | Vipers Vietnam Veteran Message Board ]
Posted by Joe on 7/5/2005, 10:10 pm
69.215.3.163
I went down to the town 4th celebration. I was kinda coerced, you know how women get when you don't want to participate in family gatherings. So sitting in the park on my lawn chair I got to listen to a great regional band. When I say band I mean strings brass etc., that kind of band. Most of the musicians were older people (my age).They played a medly of old favorites. If you're under fifty you probably would not know them.Towards the end of the concert they played miltary songs such as Semper Fidelis,The Caisson song, The Air Force song etc.
After each individual number they asked if vets from respective brances of the service would stand. Marines after Semper Fidelis, Army after the Caisson Song and so on. Out of about two thousand people attending a total of ten people stood up. Of course I'm not senile yet I knew there were more but there was not one single Marine that stood up, one young Army vet stood, four young Navy vets stood,four Airforce vets stood (three young , one old) and one young Coast Guardsman. Not one of these people looked like a Vietnam Vet. Perhaps the Air Force vet, he was the right age.I didn't really expect any Vietnam Vets to stand. Why should they? To have ungrateful demeaning eyes cast upon them again from the likes of these? It was no surprise to see how very few vets were among the thousands of people. Later they oohed and aahed at the fireworks display, relishing the thrill of the aerial blasts, feeling the concussions against their faces. While the blasts were in no way familiar to those I was familiar with ,the launcing apperatus did have a familiar sound approaching but not quite the same as an 81mm mortar tube.I was glad I got a good view of the people that cursed us years ago in their youth, a bunch of nuevo patriot flag waving never served their country a day in their lives types.I'm glad they all had fun, those noises aren't fun for me, but had I been deaf I would have had to admit it was visually pretty.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread