🚀 go-pugleaf

Eugene N. Miya (eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov) wrote:
: In article <9409241515.0LFKE01@support.com> roger.monson@support.com writes:
: >I was discussing the Viet Nam War with an acquaintance at the American 
: >Legion the other day when he made the comment "the majority of Viet Nam 
: >Veterans are screwed up in some way mentally and don't act right."

: My dad was a State official in the AL.  Every time there has been a war,
: vets from prior wars played a game of brinksmenship with new vets.  The WWII
: guys got ragged by the WWI (original) vets.  Korean War vets ("It wasn't even
: a war.") got it from WWI and WWII.  As I recall my "Sons" preamble before
: leaving them, they called Vietnam a "policing action" and "hostilities" at
: another time.  It's a hazing ritual they have.  Vietnam did differ in many
: key ways from WWII and WWI in terms of things like percentages of casualities
: inflicted by mines and booby traps ex-Soviet Afgan fighters have similar
: problems.  But I doubt that the majority of VVets were screwed up.
: I ponder how they (the AL) are going to handle all future
: brush fire conflicts......  You have to realize what the AL is and how
: they work.  WWI and WWII had their equivalents to My Lai.  War is war once
: you get to a specific level of conflict.

: --eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
:   Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
:   {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
: My 3rd favorite use of a flame thrower is "Fahrenheit 451."
: A Ref: Uncommon Sense, Alan Cromer, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993.

As a Nam combat vet, I'd say that the Viet Nam Veterans weren't any more 
screwed up than any other vet. It's just that we got screwed OVER more 
than the others. Some of us were able to handle it better than others.
The war in Viet Nam was different in many aspects, but I think three of 
the biggest problems for returning vets were:

(1) The reception we received back home.
(2) The fact that we went alone (as replacements) and returned alone.
(3) We came out of the jungle and into the American city within 36 hours or 
    so, with no time to decompress.

 -Pete Childress
chldress@crl.com