Hello to everyone here. This morning I started looking up song lyrics and somehow stumbled upon this thread. It was only out of curiosity that I started reading through the postings and was about to quit when I came across Big Mick's post about his experience. Thank you for sharing this story. I was about 11 years old when the Vietnam War started. Although my world was more about Barbies and roller skates there are parts of that time that effected me more than I thought. Music was one of those things and who would have guessed that the old tunes would have a unifying impact on so many.
My older brother went to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Div, Screaming Eagles, yet to this day he will not talk about what he experienced there. He was there after Hamburger Hill so I have no idea where he would have been stationed. He won't tell me. I remember getting a phone call from him one day (I was 14 at the time.) and he told me he had been wounded in the leg and was sent to Ramstein, Germany. He insisted I keep this a secret even from his wife and to this day I'm still the only one who knows this, but I don't understand all the secrecy and he still won't talk about it. He, too, came back a changed man. He used to be a lot of fun to be with and spent time with his younger siblings but when he finally returned home he drank a lot and did drugs to the point it ruined his marriage and many family ties. One thing that really stood out was that haunted expression in his eyes. There were several young men and women from our neighborhood that went to fight in that war. A couple of them never saw their hometown again and more than a few came back wounded but all came back bearing that same look in their eyes. One young man that I remember lived across the street from us. He was so handsome and I remember him as being my first crush. He came home missing both his legs and part of his left arm. I remeber watching his sister pushing him around in a wheelchair and seeing most notably how people reacted to him. Some would smile at him and talk to the sister over his head or they would avert their eyes and walk past, head turned away. Some even crossing the street to avoid him. Then one day he was gone. I didn't see him or his sister and no one seemed to know if he had died or not. But there must have been something in that young man far bigger than what the war had done to him. Because one day he was back. I'll never forget the first time I saw him walk outside on artificial limbs. There was no stopping him then. He worked hard and held on to what the war had tried to take away from him. My other brother, Danny who was a year older than me one day showed me a bracelet he was wearing. It was sometime just after the war had ended in 1974 I beleive, it was stainless steel and was engraved with the name and information of a soldier who was MIA. Danny vowed to never take it off until this soldier was found and he never did. I don't know if the soldier, a Capt I think, was ever found and I can't remember the name on the bracelet. You see my brother was murdered by an unknown assailant at the age of 24 and he was buried with the bracelet. So he kept his promise. Sometimes I wonder about that missing soldier and his family. What they must have gone through all these years. Was he ever found? I would like the chance to tell them that in some small way what he went through touched the heart of a total stranger who carried on hope.
So let me say a big thank you to all who served in the Vietnam war, and sending a big hug along with it. And the same to veterans of all wars. May all of you find peace and please tell your stories as much as you can because there are many like me who truly want to know.

God bless you all.

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