SwiftVets.com

[Essayons]

Greetings,

I have loitered on this Swift Vets discussion forum for over 9 months but never posted as others have been more erudite in their responses than I would have been.

Earlier I had responded by e-mail to Stevie's request to answer 13 questions that a teacher had given as an assignment to one of her friends daughter - Lauren.

Below is my response.

By the way, I was in Vietnam (Mekong Delta) before, during and after the Flipper (Kerry). Kerry is a lying piece of ****.

Stevie,

I seriously doubt this is a questionnaire that is neutral. These questions smack of bias. Too much emphasis on Draft Dodgers, protesters, anti-war songs and reinstituting the Draft but I have responded. Unfortunately Lauren will need a dictionary. Unfortunately, to answer the questions I could not give simplistic answers.

Name: Richard Coogan
Age: 64
Occupation: Retired
Location: Philadelphia Area

1. What do you know about the Vietnam War?
I served in Vietnam (15th Combat Engineer Battalion, 9th Infantry Division, Mekong Delta, 1968/1969) and I have studied the Vietnam War in great detail. I was enlisted (rank of E5) and later an officer. For approximately three months while in Vietnam I briefed Gen. Fredrick E. Davison ((Commanding Officer of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (Light)) daily about 9th Infantry Division operations in the Mekong Delta (south of Saigon).

2. What were you doing during the Vietnam War?
See the answer above and I also worked as a digital/computer engineer – weapons design for military ships and aircraft - prior to and after my military service.

3. Did you or anyone else you know serve in Vietnam? What do you know about their service?
Obviously I knew many people who served in Vietnam. Not sure how to answer the second question as I knew everything about their service. If the question is about them being against the war, no one ever voiced that opinion to me. I have seen bravery and cowardice in combat and everything in-between. One thing to remember is that anyone who tells (regales) you about their bravery in combat THEY ARE LIARS and fakes. Barstool bravado voiced by non-combatants is rampant but easily recognized by a combat veteran. Read Stolen Valor for the details.

4. If you did not serve in Vietnam, how did you feel about those who did?
Not Applicable.

5. Did you know anyone who evaded the draft?
Not that I am aware of. I did know many who quickly joined the National Guard since it was known at the time that the National Guard would not be called to serve in Vietnam. Should there be a belief that Draft Dodgers were unique to the Vietnam War go check the number of Draft Dodgers during World War II and you will be amazed at the number that were not willing to serve their country. There will always be Draft Dodgers when there is a Draft. Most serve and some slither away.

6. How did you feel about the draft evaders?
The correct term is Draft Dodger. Very negative and should I state anything more I would have to use some very nasty language which would not be appropriate.

7. Did you ever protest against the war in Vietnam? Why or why not?
No to the first question. See the answer to questions #5 and #6 above regarding “why not.”

8. Do you think the United States should have become involved in Vietnam?
Yes. It was a proxy war between the United States and China and the Soviet Union. There were many instances of this type of war, Korea for example, where the USA and its allies fight in a third world country and the Soviet Union and/or China supplied the enemy we are fighting with weapons and manpower. During the Vietnam War both China and the Soviet Union supplied the North Vietnamese with weapons and some manpower. Proxy wars were a policy during the 1960s that the Soviet Union openly advocated and was voiced at the time by Premier Krushev.

9. Have your views changed since the war ended? If so, how?
My view(s) have changed somewhat as I have studied and learned more detail about the Vietnam War. How? By understanding that the push and shove of Democracy and Communism during the period of 1950 through 1990 was a much more complicated “dance of death” than a few words can explain. I also became more aware of the power of the press (reporters) had – specifically Howard Cronkite who reported that the North Vietnamese 1968 Tet offensive was a catastrophic defeat for the USA. Tet 1968 was a catastrophic defeat for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese (between 40,000 and 80,000 killed) but America did not know this at the time and as a result the anti-war demonstrators had bogus information to further fuel their rhetoric (protest speeches).

10. How do you feel about the United States reinstating the draft?
Should it ever become obvious that we need to reinstate the Draft then that is what should be done. I do not see a need for the Draft today or in the foreseeable future.

11. Can you remember any war protest songs? (name of few if you can)
No.

12. Do you have any stories you would like to share?
Yes. I run a web site for the 15th Combat Engineers - http://15thengineer.50megs.com/ that may be of interest. The Personal Stories page, http://15thengineer.50megs.com/personal_stories.htm may be of more direct interest.

13. What do you want young people to know that are learning about the Vietnam War?
The last High School history book I looked at (2004) had two paragraphs about the Vietnam War so I gather they are learning very little about the Vietnam War. With that said, one very important item to remember is to support our troops (military). The military does not start wars – politicians start wars and the military serves at the call of our government. It is the soldier who gives us freedom of the press, not the reporter.

I wish to leave the following poem written by one of my friends who served in the 15th Combat Engineers:

I Remember

By Joseph Kolodziejksi: 6 May 2000
All Rights Reserved
edited by RTC

I remember
Coming home in '68: after the Tet offensive

I remember
Going to a peace rally: not as a participant

I remember
Hearing chants of Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh!

I remember
 Seeing Viet Cong flags
Being waved enthusiastically

I remember
They were anti-war: like cheerleaders are anti-football
They were cheerleaders for the other side
The side that was killing Americans

I remember
 They were anti-violent as they threw rocks at police
And set fire to campus buildings
I remember
They were for freedom of speech
Unless you disagreed with their party line even slightly
Then they shouted you down

I remember
Thinking the only things missing
Were brown shirts and Swastikas

I remember
They were for the workers
But sneered when they saw one with an American flag
On his hard hat

I remember
They hated capitalism
But stampeded back to college to get their MBAs and BMWs
And become tax accountants and stockbrokers
As soon as the draft was over

I remember
The deafening silence when the fighting was over
And the many South Vietnamese people who were then killed
In the name of peace

I remember
The thousands who risked starvation and drowning
On flimsy and overloaded boats and rafts
Who risked robbery, rape and murder at the hands of pirates
To escape the glorious People's Republic
And the heroic forces of the People's army

And, I remember
No one protested for them

And now for the question that was Not in Lauren’s assignment:

Why, AFTER the war was over in 1975, did so many Vietnamese risk death, as indicated in Joe’s poem above, to immigrate to the USA?

ANSWER: Because they knew the truth about the coming communist North Vietnamese repression, that the My Lai massacre was not the norm and that US soldiers had fought honorably in Vietnam (as opposed to John Kerry’s 1971 “baby killer” speech to the US Senate) and that getting to the USA was worth risking their lives for – something that a Draft Dodger or war protester would not understand. The Vietnamese “boat people” fully understood that freedom is not free and many paid with their lives trying to get their families to the United States.

Regards,
Dick
_________________
Essayons - Let us try - the code of the Army Engineer. Sappers First, the code of the Combat Engineer.

[Jerald L. Parsoneault]

Thanks for submitting your thoughts. Their sincerity came through loud and clear. They were a good reminder of the differences between Vietnam vets and those who protested from the safety of an ivy league campus, encouraged by liberal faculty, and wealthy parents.

Nalt

[DADESID]

Dick (Essayons),

I have never seen a post on this board or any other board, or in a magazine article, or a television documentary, or in a book that could possibly be more erudite than the stunningly "on the mark" summary above you provided for all of us.

I wish I were smart enough to put all the parts together in a relatively short post such as yours above.

I'd like your permission to "copy paste" and save your post.

Regards, and thank you...

Dave Desiderio

[LewWaters]

Dick, Essayons, welcome to the forum.

Your post was a great read, much like my own response to Stevie, but written more to the point. Wish I had the gift as you seem to.

I hope you stick around and contribute more.

Only one gripe. Did you have to start your post with "Greetings?"
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Clark County Conservative

[I B Squidly]

Essayon:

You done good.

With no where else to comment I'l do it here. In '65-''66 I was at a military school outside St.Louis. Our seniors figured to reune on a rice paddy. What stikes me is that we had a SgtMjr, a Major, a LtBird and a Capt assigned PMS (Professors of Military Science). All had Nam service ribbons. They instructed us in 30 cal water-cooled, 50 cal, BAR, thermo-nuclear warfare as something to know as well as our usual "gas fired semi-automatic M1". .....and they never mentioned 'Nam.
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[1991932]

Great post, Richard.

Your answers are right on, particularly those to questions #8 and #9. Every time some pundit claims we lost the war in Viet Nam, I ask the rhetorical question about who tore down the Berlin Wall.

Do historians really believe that Communism crumbled in 1989 because Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II stood up to them? They merely asked the right questions.

The answers were given over a span of 45 years by brave people whose names are inscribed in stone throughout the free world.

And that includes The Wall in Washington, DC.
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Former "War Criminal"

[Essayons]

Thanks for the kind words and feel free to copy and post the article as you see fit.

Please note (thanks for reminding me Al) that I referred to Walter Cronkite as "Howard" Cronkite which just shows my level of CRS. Or as my oldest Marine son will periodically refer to me as SOB (Senile old bast***).

Regards,
Dick
_________________
Essayons - Let us try - the code of the Army Engineer. Sappers First, the code of the Combat Engineer.

[mtboone]

Essayons

I just loaded your web site in my favorites. I am always interested in VN sites, gosh I wonder why?
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Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69