- Joined
- Mar 5, 1999
- Messages
- 34,096
Here's an excerpt of an email I sent to one of my pals, a hero who served in Nam. It explains how I feel and what I'm doing.
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I bought a new theater system and have been trying it out. I perhaps made a mistake by watching a dvd version of "Apocalypse Now" again yesterday.
So few have a real understanding of war, what we ask and sometimes force men to do, and the resulting consequences. I have the perspective of WWII and every war since and war is war regardless of what the governments choose to call it. Viet Nam wins the most disgusting award hands down.
We saw in "Apocalypse Now" a fine miltary man, destined for perhaps great things and high command, who because of what the war had done to him end up murdered by one of his own. The chief who captained the riverrat boat reminded me of my old pal, Vern Ellerbee, a Chief Bosun's Mate who captained a boat on the Mekong for almost 5 years and then "retired" abruptly after 24 years honorable service only to get off the plane at SFO and have hippies spit at him and throw eggs at him. He "exists" in self imposed solitary confinement today with every ailment agent orange can give a man without killing him.
In the dark days of WWII following Pearl Harbar I realized that my original prediction that we would defeat the Japanese in 6 weeks was seriously flawed. When my grandfather took down his 1896 Winchester .38, test fired it and oiled it up and assured a goodly supply of ammo and said, "we may end up fighting those dirty bastards right here," I was fearful. Who would keep the enemy away from hearth and home? Who would keep the invaders from killing grandfather, grandmother, father, and from raping and then killing mother?
Only our military could do this so I followed their activity closely and cheered them on at every victory and worried deeply at news items such as Wake Island and Bataan. And I learned to love, honor and respect them because they were saving my life and my way of life. I have never lost this feeling.
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I'm sending Sarge 10 or 12 khukuris tomorrow. 6 are paid for and the rest are from HI. There's not a man or woman among the HI staff who will disagree with what I'm doing. It's the least we can do.
Godspeed, brothers. If you can get me signed up I'll lock up shop for a few months, go with you and guarantee to get you every damned thing you need and some booze and other goodies, to boot.
==================
I bought a new theater system and have been trying it out. I perhaps made a mistake by watching a dvd version of "Apocalypse Now" again yesterday.
So few have a real understanding of war, what we ask and sometimes force men to do, and the resulting consequences. I have the perspective of WWII and every war since and war is war regardless of what the governments choose to call it. Viet Nam wins the most disgusting award hands down.
We saw in "Apocalypse Now" a fine miltary man, destined for perhaps great things and high command, who because of what the war had done to him end up murdered by one of his own. The chief who captained the riverrat boat reminded me of my old pal, Vern Ellerbee, a Chief Bosun's Mate who captained a boat on the Mekong for almost 5 years and then "retired" abruptly after 24 years honorable service only to get off the plane at SFO and have hippies spit at him and throw eggs at him. He "exists" in self imposed solitary confinement today with every ailment agent orange can give a man without killing him.
In the dark days of WWII following Pearl Harbar I realized that my original prediction that we would defeat the Japanese in 6 weeks was seriously flawed. When my grandfather took down his 1896 Winchester .38, test fired it and oiled it up and assured a goodly supply of ammo and said, "we may end up fighting those dirty bastards right here," I was fearful. Who would keep the enemy away from hearth and home? Who would keep the invaders from killing grandfather, grandmother, father, and from raping and then killing mother?
Only our military could do this so I followed their activity closely and cheered them on at every victory and worried deeply at news items such as Wake Island and Bataan. And I learned to love, honor and respect them because they were saving my life and my way of life. I have never lost this feeling.
====================
I'm sending Sarge 10 or 12 khukuris tomorrow. 6 are paid for and the rest are from HI. There's not a man or woman among the HI staff who will disagree with what I'm doing. It's the least we can do.
Godspeed, brothers. If you can get me signed up I'll lock up shop for a few months, go with you and guarantee to get you every damned thing you need and some booze and other goodies, to boot.
