War? Why!

 If there ever was any question in my mind, that deployment to VietNam in 1968  removed it.  Is war a good thing?  Definitely NOT!  

TET of ‘68 was definitely not a good thing for anyone over there.  Not for the VietCong, not for the Vietnamese patriots, and definitely not for those of us who were there to do our governments bidding.  My memories bring me back, often in the middle of the night to what I saw that night, to what let me know enough about war to last my lifetime.  You see, TET was a national holiday for all Vietnamese, South, North, Whatever–it was (and is) a major holiday for them.  For us, though? No, a definite no, would be my answer.  

What I saw was tracers running up and down my Airforce base’s streets…tracers that were generally loaded one to maybe six or so rounds in an M-16’s clip, that were used to show the rifleman where his bullets were actually going.  And what I saw lighting up the night, that night of TET, was terrifying, to say the least.  

Yes, we had our holiday display, and, while I know not how many of the enemy were taken out, I do know the number of our defenders who did not live to see the light of day was twenty-six.  Not a good night for us, by any measure other than the fact that we only lost twenty-six.

“War, uh, Good God! What good is it?  Absolutely Nothing!” is the first line of a song that defines what was happening that night in VietNam, and I can only tell you the people over there would agree totally with the statement.  As would the people in Ukraine today.  

What can we do today?  I don’t know, but whatever we can do to end this craziness, I hope our politicians DO do!  And that’s it.  And, to borrow a line from our AikenStandard paper’s Executive Editor, “Thanks for reading!”