Please read

[Packo]

Figures they would show Platoon. "We were soldiers once" would have been the appropriate choice but who wants to see commradery, courage, dedication, and honor, by a bunch of guys who the vast majority had never ever seen a day of combat.

Are you going to be in the protest? I would almost come up there to join you. No unkempt long hair, no jungle fatigues, no drugs, and no whinney story to tell. Just ONE Purple Heart and a real limp to go with it. Let me know.

Packo

[PHO127]

Kerry up on the stage and tell how he got 3 purple hearts in less than 6 months. Lets see there was the hangnail, then the stubbed toe and.......

[Andy]

ONESIX: He was in company B, thank you, I was looking for that.

SCOUT: I?m still checking Reader?s Digest, but it?s tax time and a few relatives just dropped off some paperwork. (No I?m not an accountant, just know how the government thinks / works.)

LARRY: Most of the Vietnamese and Cambodians who have settled here were aided in large part by local churches who have very liberal ministers. The ministers did good helping these people but those ministers are by and large pacifists. If a Vietnamese were to support our Army, to rag on the North Vietnamese, it would be like slapping the hand that helped them. They would, in their own eyes, loose face. I totally understand them.

PACO: The door is always open but this is no big deal. The former head of the local post office, the man in charge of maintenance at U. of Mass , an insurance salesman and I will do the protest. We?ll be in suit coats and a written message will be handed out to each person who comes to the showing of Platoon.

SID: Would I love to ask JFK-erry a few questions but don?t see that in the cards. I do see you in cards, about a week from now.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[exlrrp]

Just go in there and tell the truth, whatever it is for you. Don't think about the applause or any agreement or disagreement you may get.Speak from your own experience. Don't set it up as a confrontation--set it up to where you win regardless because you went in there and told the truth. You CAN'T lose that way.
Do something unexpected. (if you can't think what to do, throw a grnade!)Maybe for a change, don't tell war stories. Maybe you could do a better service by telling how you readjusted and based on your own experience, what aociety needs to do to help our current returning veterans readjust. Maybe thats a better story and you could REALLY be helpful to your community.
Re: Oliver Stone: Live and Let Live.
re: long time hatred and holding resentments: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Have a good life!

Thanks for all the compliments guys but if I'm whats holding up the American Art World, America is in BIG trouble in more ways than one.
I'm currently doing a Performance Art Tour all over the country and world. I call it: My Life

See yall when its sleepytime down South

James

[onesix]

What your group is planning on doing sounds great. I have given your request additional thought and have some addition suggestions. I don't know if they will fit in, but here goes:
1) ACTION: Do a version of "The last patrol", similar to that which accompanies the Moving Wall.

2) HANDOUT: Provide individuals with a handout on the chronology of the war. Such information is available from many sources.

3) BOOK DISPLAY: Display the book REQUIEM by Horst Faas and Tim Page. It contains photos of all of the photo journalists killed in Vietnam and has some of the very best, most poignant, and heart rendering pictures of the war.

4) VIDEO (continuous running): Run the 1/2 hour video THE ANDERSON PLATOON. IMO it is one of the best put out on the war. It is about a platoon on a very typical infantry patrol and even includes footage of a Huey crashing in a RON location.

5) CD MUSIC (continuous or one-time running) of the following:
a) IN COUNTRY (full CD). A compilation of about 24 songs written, composed, and sung by Vietnam Vets.
b) VIETNAM---A MUSICAL RETROSPECTIVE (full CD). A compilation of the songs we listened to on AFVN radio, narrated by ADRIAN CRONAUER (he even does his "goooooood mornining Vee-et-Nam" thing.
c) VIETNAM LOVE SONG (a single) by Judy Collins, found on her CD "LIVING". This is a very heart-rendering song about the agony that the Vietnamese people went through during the war.
d) I-FEEL-LIKE-I'M-GOONA-DIE-RAG (A single) a.k.a. THE FISH CHEER by Country Joe McDonald found on the CD "BEST OF WOODSTOCK". This is an anti-war song sung live at Woodstock. Country Joe later appologized to all Vietnam Vets for having sung this song.

Enough for now.

[exlrrp]

[i] Country Joe later appologized to all Vietnam Vets for having sung this song.

Why in the world did he do that? It was the best song coming out of the Vietnam War. I still sing it

James

[onesix]

You'll have to ask Country Joe.

[MORTARDUDE]

Andy :

I did a lot of Google searches but don't see anything about Oliver Stone's apology about "Platoon"...didn't you say "Country Joe" was a judge in San Francisco ? Weird.

Larry

[SEATJERKER]

...Wayward son,...


Carry on Wayward Son Lyrics

(Kerry Livgren)

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could thnk I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say

CHORUS
Carry on my wayward son,
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Now don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say

CHORUS

Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you

CHORUS



...it is the closing theme song for the movie "heroes' with Henry Winkler playing the lead role, I'm sure you have all seen it, I would like to see a reprise of his role 35 years later, but only if it were to portray the real story of a PTSD survivor...

...It portrays a man with PTSD who wants to travel cross country after returning from the Vietnam War, I believe it came out in "77", not long enough after the war for the actualities of it all to sink in,...

...Although the dramatic's of it all were candy coated, I see the ending of the movie every time I hear the song by the group "kanas", and it reminds me of all of you, you,.. the chosin, the few,... the Marines, the Army, The Navy, the Air force, the Coast Guard,...

... You all served in a time that stood still, a time that moved faster then life, life passed on in nanoseconds, and it pulled you closer together then any other group of people ever to walk the face of this earth, but through it all, you lived, you have lived to tell the horrors, and the truth's, all of them as individual as you are, no one can, or will ever take them away from you, But it is your responsability now to tell those truths again to nulify the myths, so that those truths stay truths, and the Honor, and dignity of the Vietnam Veterans is restored to each, and everyone of you,...

...This Nation can not thank you all enough for the sacrifices that your generation made,...

...Thank you,...

..."Welcome Home",...

...

[Andy]

It?s obvious our favorite Texas Fireman doesn?t do things half-way. Ron has sent me a box, rather large box filled with Vietnam documentaries. Thank?s Ron, I?ll get them back to you by the end of May. I?m going to loan them to the library as part of the ?exhibition?. One of those flicks really made me smile. ?Letters Home?, which was either an HBO or History Channel documentary, is something I saw several years ago. The letters home from different years really do tell the change in the American Army and in America. The sound track is also great - thanks. I know this sounds odd but I think I?m in it.

James, I know what Country Joe was doing and saying and the song never bothered me. However my best friend growing up, John J. Rabideau was the first man from our town to die in Vietnam. His mom would hear that song, ?? be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box?? and would totally freak out. She never went to a mental hospital but needed some heavy drugs for a long time to deal with things. God she hated Joe. BTW, I?d never think of telling anything but the truth, all those years of being on a witness stand are still with me. Yet, I always tried to sneak in a little humor if I could, seemed to win over the jury.

Larry, a close friend who was a rather liberal lawyer told me that a number of years ago Joe MacDonald was elected to be a local judge in the Frisco area. Never bothered looking into it, there seemed no reason not to believe this future judge.

OneSix, thanks for all the good ideas. This series of events is going to be spread out over six weeks, so we?ll have to pick and choose our times and places.

Everyone Stay Healthy,
Andy