52 years ago I got to leave Vietnam. Now our troops are leaving Afghanistan. Good for them. Thank you President Biden.
August 19, 2009
Freedom Bird - 40th Anniversary
I missed Woodstock. If you read the papers, get your news online or watch TV, you know that the most publicized music festival of all time ran for four days forty years ago, from August 15th to the 18th. A Richie Havens song "Freedom" became famous. My favorite song at the time was a 1965 single by Eric Burdon and the Animals, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the happiest days of my life. August 19, 1969 was the day I got on the World Airways plane, the Freedom Bird, that took me away from Viet Nam. It was the most exhilarating feeling when that plane took off. I had survived my tour as an infantryman (aka a "grunt") with the Big Red One and I was headed home. I wasn't through with the army - I still had to spend 6 months at Fort Carson, Colorado - but I was alive and well. In a war that ultimately took over 58,000 American lives and who knows how many lost limbs or minds, that was a big deal.
I had been scheduled to depart on August 23rd but I wasn't going to argue about getting to leave a few days early. In fact, if I had extended my tour in Nam for about 2 months I could have gotten an early out and avoided the 6 months at Fort Carson. It wasn't worth the risk. August 23rd was my DEROS date. I always thought that the acronym stood for Date Ending Rotation Over Seas but I've seen other variations such as date of expected return from overseas. On the flight to Nam on Flying Tiger airlines the year before, I sat next to a guy from Iowa. The same guy sat next to me on the flight back to the states. Don't know if that's unusual or not. We got assigned to different units so I hadn't seen him for almost a year. If I saw a picture of him as he looked back then I think I'd recognize him although I have no recollection of his name.
I was a draftee. I did not volunteer to go to Nam. But I knew that once my year was up I would not have to go back. If someone told me that I would have to return I think I would seriously have considered heading to Canada. I can't imagine doing 3, 4 or 5 tours like some of our soldiers have in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we're out attending concerts and ballgames, they're enduring many hardships and facing death or dismemberment on a daily basis from IEDs, car bombs, etc. The stress must be unbelievable. To leave a combat zone but know that you have to return obviously takes away a lot of the joy from getting back to the states. Some may say that they enlisted and should have known the risks involved. That doesn't make it any easier on them or their loved ones. I hope to soon see the day when we have no troops in a combat zone.
Posted at 06:49 AM in miscellaneous | Permalink
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I hope we have no troops in a combat zone someday soon too. The longer they are there the more it seems they will always be there, but I hope that's not the case. I am very glad you got to come home on August 19, 1969. Very good choice doing the 6 months at Ft. Carson instead of 2 more months in Vietnam...I think staying 2 more months might have been looking a gift horse in the mouth! Plus, you came home and ten years, 4 months and 2 days later had ME! Very good call:)
Posted by: Kathleen | August 21, 2009 at 05:33 PM