Dennis, Dave, and all:

Your appreciation means more to me than I can express, but I just did my job, like everyone else.

Dennis- I've been meaning to tell you-I saw your post at the Virtual Wall for Warren. I didn't know him well, but his loss quite likely saved me.

I was an "excess" 35Mike at Avionics. I'd come out of Field Artillery OCS ("tubed" out after sixteen weeks), and was thoroughly familiar with the Pig and Ma Deuce. I could not get the section to let me go, and the thought of gunning on my little time off never crossed my mind, and I never was invited. I flew only a few times, and wished with a vengeance born in Hell that I could exact punishment on the bad guys if only for what they did to my USMC buddy. I heard about Warren the day it happened, and heard enough details that I will never forget it. I decided that day to continue to do my job, and if the fight came to me, there I'd be...if I were ordered to go, I would go. But I lost the Volunteer idea.
Chickenshit? Maybe. But like I said, I was ready to do what I had to.

At the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing, we, my friends, came from good stock - we have our strong beliefs, and the determination to do what we have to do.

It especially galls me whenever I hear anyone say anything about losing. Horseapples. They are showing their ignorance. The liberals and chickenshits (read: liberals) didn't have the stomach for it all, the liberal media twisted so much out of proportion, and the American public believed it. The protests affected the weaker side of America so much that the politicians feared for their futures if they didn't stop our support for one of the noblest efforts modern man has undertaken. Much of our senior military leadership was ineffective in assuring what was necessary to bring our task to fruition.

Of the five (including myself) guys from my peer group "on the block", one was "4F", and the other four served. One never left CONUS. The others served in or in support of Vietnam. (My Navy buddy was on the Enterprise for both fires, and
was critically injured in the second, off the coast of Vietnam, engaged in combat operations.
I am the survivor of the four who served. Only one
was KIA in 'Nam, but four of us offered our lives for our beliefs. 'Nuff said.

Thanks for your kind words, Brothers.

Tom