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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, the call sign of a real military guy currently serving somewhere in Iraq. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

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April 25, 2005

From the Front

Greyhawk

Your Ho Chi Minh City at 30 version of From the Front.

Was it worth it? A Vietnam veteran tells his story:

"They came at us about 5:30 in the morning. They overran the camp. We beat them back. They overran it again. We beat them back. I'd never seen hand-to-hand before. It lasted more than six hours. I see a personnel carrier. One of the Vietnamese, he didn't even have a weapon anymore, just a little guy with a hatchet. The battle was over, but he ran and attacked the personnel carrier, banging on it with his hatchet.

"One of our guys on top of the carrier looked down at him. He shook his head. He couldn't believe an enemy like this, no gun, had the will to fight. With his hands. With a hatchet. That's how we would be if some country attacked America. But we were over there, thousands of miles away.

"That's when I was thinking, maybe we shouldn't have been in Vietnam. An officer showed up. We saluted. He said that he should be saluting us. Then I looked down at my leg and it was all bloody. Then I passed out. It was a hand grenade."

On June 6, 1967, he flew into O'Hare International Airport. His buddy, Joe, from Michigan, was worse off, having lost his leg below the knee.

"We were all spit and polish, we had our medals on, walking to another gate for Joe to take his flight home," Colovos said. "Then we got the welcome home. There were three guys with long hair. They walked up to us. We stood there. They spit."

Wounded and outnumbered, they brawled on the floor with the other three. John screamed for bystanders to help.

"The bystanders were in a circle, watching. They didn't help. That broke my heart."

John pulled a pistol and the fight stopped. Two police officers calmed things down, let him keep his pistol but took the bullets, then scattered the crowd. After seeing Joe off to Michigan on another flight, the police drove Colovos home to North and Central.

Was it worth it? Read evey word - but don't expect answers.

Posted by Greyhawk at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) |

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Was it worth it? No, as it turns out, it wasn't. It could have been, but we cut and ran and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, wasted 238,000 lives, and spit on 238,000 graves. There's a special corner of Hell reserved for Kerry and Fonda and Cronkite and all of the others who made it happen. Maybe there's a section next to it for those of us who left our souls over there -- maybe I'll find out some day. Did we learn from the experience, or are we going to listen to the Kerry/Dean/Soros/Moore crowd and do it again? Lord, what I wouldn't give to know.

Bill Faith
Viet Nam, '71-'72

Posted by Bill Faith at April 26, 2005 07:51 AM

I think the worth will have to be judged by history. We may have lost the war, but it seems like we are winning the peace....

Posted by armynurseboy at April 26, 2005 04:50 PM

To the millions of innocent people who lost their lives to communist tyranny, and to the millions who fled Indochina to escape from communist tyranny, it was a noble effort. We may have lost the battle, but we won the war against communism, thanks to people like John Colovos.

Posted by James at April 26, 2005 06:59 PM

It was a shameful war because we had nothing to gain for fighting it. We had no national interests in Vietnam. As we used to say, "It don't mean a thing", and it didn't. It was a war that sacrificed our young men and women for statism. No soldier should ever be forced by the state to sacrifice themselves. Soldiers should only fight because they choose to fight as free men for their freedom. An Army of draftees never has that option.

It was a war where magnificient men did awesome things for their country that refused to notice.

It is another reason that "Never Again/Never Forget" has duality since 9/11.

It is the only war the US Army is assumed to have lost two years after it left country.

Worth it? That is the wrong question. A better question is why? And, how do we insure never to fall victim to politicians like this again?

NOTR - 11th ACR - 71-72

Posted by NOTR at April 27, 2005 02:38 AM

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April 25, 2005

From the Front