Tag Archives: Vietnam

The Vietnam Veteran of Today

Semper Fi
Semper Fi

“We were soldiers once and young.” We were patriots against the wind. Our leaders were three-legged stools. Our pictures were not pretty. Our story had no plot. Our hope was ephemeral and we were shunned by our own. Some did not recover. Was this a test? Was this some metaphysical trial by fire to prepare us for a new order of things? Is it not possible that the travails of the Vietnam Veteran were akin to the friction that creates diamonds? Is is not possible that our dark night of the soul and survival through times of absolute chaos and calamity has by some accident of history prepared us to be one of the most compassionate and collective moral leaders our nation has ever known?
As a band of brothers and sisters, Vietnam Veterans are a damn formidable force. We are an extended family fused with a brotherly love and an uncommon sense of justice without prejudice.
Vietnam Veterans are one of the most inclusive and culturally diverse corporate bodies in our land. Very much to the contrary of popular media are families have been emboldened and enriched by our service in the Armed Forces and a tour of duty in the Vietnam theater. Cliche as it may be, “if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger.”
How ironic that these rare psychological survival skills, gained without volition, during a time when we were shamed, have become the ingredients of a brand of leadership that may lead us out of an abyss created by the current elected. How poignantly ironic that we arise now from the apocalyptic and nihilistic experience of the jungle to provide light and levity to a seriously polarized world.