[Stick]

You finish basic training and move on to advanced individual training. With a little luck you have a week or two between the two and have the time to relax and recuperate from the DI's. You wear your dress uniform to get onto the planes or trains but take them off as soon as you're able to go to town. While in that uniform nobody says anything to you about anything having to do with that uniform and you get into civi's as soon as you can and go to town. It's 1965 and we're over there killing babies don't yah know. After AIT you maybe go to a base stateside but you sure take off that uniform any time you get a pass to go to town. You go off to the Democratic Republic of South Vietnam and do what you're ordered and trained to do and you make it to your DEROS date and come home. Nobody says a damn thing to you while in that uniform so you take it off and play civilian until your discharge date after which you're asked how many kids you killed while watching those that never wore a uniform burn flags freely because of their "freedom of expression." They scream that we shouldn't be "over there" killing babies and those that come home in black bags with flags over those bags are scorned because they deserved to die anyway. Freedom of speech, right?
I came home on a stretcher thank goodness on a C-141 that had a few of those body bags back in the cargo hold and never saw a civilian airport but I do know that troops were told that they should wear civies if they went through a civilian airport.
What did we learn from that?
Today if you see a troop in a dress uniform and you go up to them, shake their hand and thank them and so does the guy or gal that was burning those flags back in the 60's.
Vietnam did teach America something, didn't it?
You see someone who wears the green, yellow and red Viet Nam service ribbon and you walk up to him and "welcome home" him.
Thank God today the West-borough Baptist Church is the exception, not the rule and today 99 & 44/100% of America looks with contempt on those who spit on the Red, White and Blue.
We won!!!!