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Ted McDonald said:
( January 30th, 2016 @ 1:21 pm )
24 Major Wars since Independence. Most of us are veterans. Where are the skilled Negotiators? I am not a Dove but do not want my grandson in another useless war.
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Strangely enough, I came to my conclusions not because of any war related revelation but a study of Martin Luther King in trying to resolve my inbred racial biases. Anger and Hate are two of the most destructive emotions.
"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies". MLK Just a bit of clarification on Hanoi Jane. I had no problem with her protest of the war and the antiwar rallies she attended here. My problem was her visit to Hanoi. There is quite a bit of misinformation about her actions there. I still think that she gave aid and comfort to the enemy and was a propagandist for the NVA. Perhaps she should have been prosecuted. My problem was her posing on an anti-aircraft gun. It is one thing to protest against a war you disagree with, but quite another to aid the enemy. My reason for letting it rest is based on a realization that we all were young once and our over exuberance in our beliefs cause us to do stupid stuff. Forgiving Jane came long after I reconciled with the NVA and the Viet Cong. "Whenever possible I try to sit down with vets and talk with them, because I understand and it makes me sad," Fonda told a relatively full theater, responding to a submitted question. "It hurts me and it will to my grave that I made a huge, huge mistake that made a lot of people think I was against the soldiers." I subscribe to the "Forgive? Maybe. Forget? Never" in the article below. Here is the closest you may get to an apology. www.military.com |
My father's battalion CO was a Lt. Colonel, and they called him grandpa.
He was 27 years old on Okinawa. You guys will both have to admit one thing about Jane Fonda. She was a true, and fearless trailblazer for Hollywood actors in taking a direct stand for treason. I do believe, she may have been the first. |
Stan Said, “These thin, wiry, bright young men were so special.”
The Old Fogy in me makes comparisons to those young today who go all the way through college & still do not know what they want to do with their lives, who are pleased that they can stay on their parent’s health insurance policy through age 25 & no longer get the opportunity to Fast Mature by serving in the military. All of these Fogy Thoughts make me think back to one of the several books By Steven E. Ambrose (Band of Brothers author) that I read entitled, The Wild Blue. It was about a B 24 bomber crew of during World War II. What that crew went through (& all the other such crews like them) is hard to imagine. The Captain of the crew was an “old man” because he was 22 years old. The rest were in their teens. If they had to, I hope today’s young people might come through & perform equally as well but I really wonder if they could. Bobby Tony said, “Hell, I have even forgiven Jane Fonda”. Bobby Tony, I am coming around to your way of thinking about Jane Fonda but it probably take me another 50 years to fully join you in this one. Smartfella |
Your parents must have been wonderful people by knowing the grace to find that special love to bring you back to being their little boy again.
In many respects, I am a big tough guy, but I am best when I still possess the wonder of a child. I think the Lord wants that part of us to have dominion over. But I could be wrong. Your personal pieces still possess the universality of the human condition, which well communicates to the rest of us. I think it is the mirth of your humor that makes it work. I look forward to your next piece. |
I think you are right. I spent most of my life in denial, I finally had one of my Band of Brothers tell me, "You may not suffer from PTSD, but I bet your family does". That was the day I began to deal with it. I still don't think I have a pervasive problem but, I don't like to read about the symptoms in print.
I am working on a draft writing for a Mother's Day article for my Grandpa's Diary family series. It takes time for me to talk or write about her. I was a momma's by from day one and it has made all the difference. I use to tell people that my dad was responsible for me getting back in one piece but my mom was the one who was responsible for me surviving the aftershock. |
I may be wrong, but, I believe almost every combat veteran suffers from some level of PTSD, if for know other reason, the adrenaline rush that you spoke of.
Some have it worse than others for a variety of reasons, but, the end result is that all soldiers sacrifice so much to do their jobs well, and if they don't, they are ever closer to death. Your mother was a saint. Hate is a terrible thing. It eats at bother the Hater and the Hated in equal measure. |
I have always loved Audie since I saw him in To Hell and Back. Later I had a counselor tell me about his PTSD which I never knew about. I had always assumed he was like every other WWII vet I had met. Tough as nails, moving on with life without a second thought. After some research and several autobiographies about him, I was able to reconcile the difference between getting the mission accomplished and living with it afterward.
Fortunately, I never hated the Vietnamese. My mother's example and Christianity would not allow that. I did learn to respect their courage and tenacity and finally accept that It Is what It Is. Hell, I have even forgiven Jane Fonda. I later concluded that Audie went to Hell but may never have come Back. Moreover, he became an inspiration to me once again. Not as a gung ho GI but as a man of dignity and courage dealing with his reality and demons with the same courage he displayed in combat. Here is his memorial site. www.audiemurphy.com One day I will summon the guts to visit The Wall in Washington DC. I will visit Audie as well. I have put it off for forty-eight years and plan on making the trek for my 50th anniversary of my Freshman year at RVN-U. |
Audie Murphy is kind of a special guy for me. My Dad, Robert Earle Deatherage, would talk about Audie rather than tell how many Japs he killed at Okinawa, which is how I think he dealt with his PTSD.
My father literally hated the Japs, but he never talked about killing them. I think it was an unnatural thing for him to do - the killing and the talking about it - since he was a young Christian boy from Fuquay Springs in 1945. He did love to talk about Lt. Murphy killing Germans though. More than two decades ago, I visited Arlington with a delegation of county commissioners from North Carolina, which was arranged by the NC National Guard. I visited the magnificent and flawed lieutenant's grave, and said a prayer for his immortal soul. He was a great American ... one of the greatest. I will visit his grave site again, and will again say that prayer, but this next time I will include a prayer for my father's good soul as well. These thin, wiry, bright young men were so special. They gave up a big chunk of their young spirits to do what they did for us. |