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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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 Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 11:46 pm Post subject: "Just thank-you~" (to Viet Nam vets) |
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This is mainly for the other 'Nam vets in the group but maybe some of the rest of y'all can pass it on to other vets I don't know how to reach. This is on my blog at http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/posts/2005/01/just_thankyou.html if you want to send people there to read it.
| Quote: | "Just thank-you~"
I received an email a few hours ago that I wish I could forward on to every Viet Nam veteran on the face of the planet. The best I can do is post it here, forward it on to some people I think will appreciate it, and hope it spreads across the net as far and wide as possible.
The subject line on the email was "Just thank-you~"
| Quote: | Dear Mr. Faith,
I awoke this morning with a need to compose the letter I've attached below. I don't have a clue as to why, or why now.
Upon completion, I had no idea what to do with it, if anything.
A "Google" search provided your website, my first and only stop. I read "Will You Welcome Us Home Now?". [Click
here -- BF]
I don't know any Vietnam Veterans, so I decided to send my letter to you. At least, I'll have thanked one Vietnam Veteran today.
I hope you don't mind my sending you the letter below, since you don't know me at all.
Thank you.
Becky |
No, Becky, I don't "mind" that you chose me to send your letter to. I'm old and "tough" and I only got choked up for about 5 minutes when I read it. I hope you don't mind that I can't just keep it to myself.
| Quote: | Dear Vietnam Veteran,
As Iraq smolders on, I think of you more often than usual.
Though I don’t know your name, sometimes I’ve seen your face.
Now and then, your eyes are haunted, and can look right through me. Other times, your eyes seem to hold secrets I could never know, that you would be far too kind to tell me, even if you could. Frequently, your eyes seem wizened, with a fountain of compassion for the inexplicable. From time to time, I feel you’re in a far away place, long ago, and your eyes don’t focus at all.
Sometimes you are missing limbs, wearing an old military jacket, with a cart containing all of your belongings.
Occasionally, you’re in a 3-piece suit, and casual acquaintances may not even know you served.
Every so often, I hear financially successful vets held up as examples of what all vets could accomplish, as though people were all the same, and everyone’s experiences in war were the identical.
I try to imagine what you experienced, though I know I cannot. I wonder how you can still love the country who betrayed you, by refusing to welcome you home?
I do know that whether you performed heroic actions,
or whether you did things you’d like to forget,
whether you saved the lives of many Americans by risking your own,
or whether you found the nearest foxhole and stayed there,
to me, you are a hero.
You bravely took your young life over there.
No matter what you thought of the war, no matter whether leaders exhibited wisdom or not, no matter what politics were involved, you faced the reality that you were called to fight. You went.
I lost no one close to me. I sacrificed nothing. I demonstrated nowhere. I simply put my youthful self to sleep at night feeling very safe because I lived in America. I took my freedom for granted because I’d known no other way. Communism was nothing more than a history lesson.
Perhaps because of Vietnam, soldiers in Iraq will continue to receive better treatment upon returning home, whether the war remains “popular” or not. That doesn’t help you though, except to illustrate graphically how you were wronged .
I’m just a middle-aged mom who is daily grateful I’ve not yet had to send a son to combat. Yet surely, if I think of you so often, others do as well.
I don’t know if that matters, now. I was too young to welcome you home appropriately at the time. I can only hope I would have, but life is so easy to see in retrospect.
Yet, if there’s even a chance that my appreciation could mean anything to you now, then it’s worth whatever I can do to let you know.
I also understand if it would be ‘too little, too late’, even if the whole nation knelt before you begging your forgiveness.
So, for whatever it’s worth, I humbly thank you. I think of you. I appreciate you.
Becky |
Becky, thank you, more than I can say. I've heard "Thank you" and "Welcome home" more in the last 6 months or so than any time in the last 35 years, and each time does still matter. I'll do my best to see that your letter reaches as many other vets as possible. I know it still matters to them, too, and maybe your letter will serve as a reminder to some other people to never, ever, treat another generation of warriors the way ours was treated. Thank you, Becky. Just thank you.
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_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:49 am Post subject: |
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Reading words as that also humbles me. Even after all these years, to hear someone finally come out and recognize that we went, we did our duty and we endured.
Even though she didn't mention him, sKerry will never understand people like that. His "service" was designed to further a political career, nothing else. To the rest, we went, whether it be out of duty or simply because we were sent, we went. Only sKerry, to my knowledge, had ulterior motives.
I also wish to thank Becky. Like you, Bill, I've had more well wishes this past year than in the entire previous 33 years, combined. Although a bit awkward, it still feels good and at times, brings tears to my eyes.
Thank you, Becky and thank you, Bill, for sharing that.
_________________
Clark County Conservative
Last edited by LewWaters on Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:04 am Post subject: |
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Lew, thanks for reminding me that I should tell Becky where this post is so she can watch the replies like yours.
In case anyone has any concerns about copyrights or anything: don't. Becky sent me a second mail thanking me for posting her letter on my site and saying it's OK to do anything with it I want to, and what I want to do is see that as many people read it as possible. Please, anyone who's so inclined, copy my post from the forum or from my blog and send it to everyone you know.
_________________
Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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mtboone
Founder
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 470
Location: Kansas City, MO.
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:53 am Post subject: |
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I try to imagine what you experienced, though I know I cannot. I wonder how you can still love the country who betrayed you, by refusing to welcome you home?
I do know that whether you performed heroic actions,
or whether you did things you’d like to forget,
I would like to reply to this, but this sounds too much like words from the past, they are just trying bring it into the current situation. We do not try to forget our time there, we would like to remember everything, we just call it CRS, Can't Remember ****. Our Country did not betray us, it was the politicians, the media and the protesters and now Ted Kennedy is doing the same.
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Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69 |
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Bill Faith
Ensign
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Lawrenceville, IL, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:17 am Post subject: |
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| mtboone wrote: | | I would like to reply to this, but this sounds too much like words from the past, they are just trying bring it into the current situation. We do not try to forget our time there, we would like to remember everything, we just call it CRS, Can't Remember s**t. Our Country did not betray us, it was the politicians, the media and the protesters and now Ted Kennedy is doing the same. |
Terry, please don't miss the fact that Becky's too young to really remember how it was when you came home, or even when I did a little later. Her heart's in the right place and I'm inclined to overlook the things she doesn't quite understand, like the fact that there are a lot more vets in 3 piece suits than there are pushing shopping carts and looking for handouts. Iraq clearly did have a lot to do with her deciding to write the letter she wrote, but that doesn't change the fact that she wrote it. I should have clarified earlier that when she sent it she wasn't expecting anyone but me to see it. Posting it on my blog, and here, was my idea, not hers, so if you feel like that was inappropriate I'm the one to blame. Personally, I still believe that making sure a lot of people see it will help more people than it hurts.
I agree, our country didn't betray us, it was the protesters and the press, and we need to do what we can to keep it from happening again. It's becoming way too obvious that if Kerry and Kennedy and their ilk have there way it will.
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Bill Faith
bill.faith@gmail.com
http://smalltownveteran.typepad.com/
USAF 1970-1974
Viet Nam 1971-1972 |
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GenrXr
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 1720
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:50 am Post subject: |
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A lot of heart went into writing this.
| Quote: | | Perhaps because of Vietnam, soldiers in Iraq will continue to receive better treatment upon returning home, whether the war remains “popular” or not. That doesn’t help you though, except to illustrate graphically how you were wronged. |
Her sincerity is evident by saying "popular or not" as opposed to the radicals saying "right or wrong".
Beautiful letter and I second its sentiment.
I am 34 years old and although this post is meant for Vietnam Vets, my reply is meant only to reinforce the sentiment of the letter.
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"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy |
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AMOS
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 30 Jul 2004
Posts: 558
Location: IOWA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject: A thank you. |
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| A few years ago, I actually had a Vietnamese guy thank me. That was the best one of the other five or six thank yous. I can still hear the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. |
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