Have you everr song Vietnam Love Song?

Its odd to hear somebody say thank you for military service.

Frank Bauman and I were stationed at Ft Holabird in Baltimore Maryland in 1973. It was the end of Vietnam. Frank came in the barracks one day and was seething. He had gone to the local grocery store with his uniform on and some guy had followed him into the store and when Frank wasn't looking, he cold cocked him. When Frank got up from being hit, the guy had run away.

Frank and I were transferred to Seoul Korea and were attached UN Command J-2. It wasn't terribly hazardous duty, except to one Navy Commander. I knew the Navy commander vaguely. We found Tunnels under the DMZ, the most heavily defended area on earth. I'll never understand it, they told us the tunnels were mined. The day after the Navy Commander and some of our GI's went into the tunnels and the tunnel was blown up. The Navy commander died, some others were injured. They found the Commanders thumb, the rest of the body was left in the tunnel, to dangerous to bring him home. I never found out if they did recover his boy, yet to this day I remember that Navy commander, he was a decent guy.

My military service ended in 1975 and so did Franks, nobody said thanks, Frank said at Church some little old lady had called him a baby killer when he went home on leave. Frank wore his uniform more than I did.

I missed asingnment to Vietnam by 12 days, a simple twist of fate. I was lucky.

At the end, I was attached to our Ground shop in and we watched the enemy. We monitored the aniliation of the South Vietnamese at the end. I was one of the few men who had not served in Vietnam, its odd but to a man the men I worked with were ready to go back to Vietname that day.

It was a melancholdy day when Vietnam fell

You know, to this day, nobody has ever told me thanks to my face.Frank has I suspect forgotten that coward who hit him in that store long ago. The Navy Commander lies dead in his grave or unburied in a tunnel in the DMZ, dead these 26 years.

Odd how history time works.

The songs tell of war but they can't bring the feel of being in military service. To quiver in the black dawn in formation with other men.....

Its nice to see somebody say thanks, but I have never beleived many people really meant it.

Wes Prichard Auburn. RA. Regualar Army (For A Brief And Momentous Time.)