Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died on the battlefields while serving in the U.S. military. The revisionist over the pass twenty years or so think it's to honor all who ever served in the military, veterans and those serving today in uniform. The revisionist as usual have it wrong, we have Veterans Day to honor vets and Armed Forces Day to honor those who are currently serving in the military. Memorial Day is honoring those Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield. The first memorial day to honor fallen American soldiers took place in the South in 1866. A couple of years later in the North the Yankees did the same thing. Semper Fi to all Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield.
Yep.....Decoration Day. Although, for some reason I have been thinking about the 1600 still MIA from NAM.
Today, I attended and marched in our town's annual Memorial Day Parade and ceremonies; this makes 53 years that I've been attending them; missing only once in 1983 (I had to work and couldn't get off). For me this is the most solemn holiday; even more important to me than Christmas and it's paramount for me to remember those who gave their lives to ensure that we could enjoy the freedoms our founding fathers gave us at the founding of our great country. I hope everyone has (had) a great Memorial Day!
The 1,600 Vietnam War MIA's are honored today, with some of us everyday. I wonder if "Salt and Pepper" are listed as two of the 1,600 MIA's ?
I heard that Saigon had Soul City and up in I-Corps in DaNang there was Dog Patch just west of the DaNang air base. Now Dog Patch wasn't off limits (well some streets of Dog Patch were off limits) but when someone went AWOL you were more than likely finding him in Dog Patch shacking up with some Vietnamese girl. The city of DaNang proper was off limits to all Navy and Marine personnel. At night DaNang belonged to Charley. Who served around DaNang and remembers Dog Patch ? Dog Patch today don't look like any thing as it did 50 years ago.
I think all who was there knew about Dog Patch around Mag 11 and Hill 327. If I recall correctly Semper Fi was East of it on Monkey Mountain.
I spent a day on Monkey Mountain replacing a radio antenna. Monkey Mountain was where the Marines A/A SAM Hawks were deployed and where all of the communication antennas were located at. The place was infested with huge rats.
Do bears sh!t in the woods ? Cobras, pit vipers, pythons large enough to swallow a man. Saw a dead tiger that some soldiers shot that they were driving around showing off to everyone. Heard stories of elephants being seen further south in central and southern Vietnam. I have a few Vietnam snake stories that are pretty good and were some what funny at the time. Since I grew up in the suburbs of LA and spent a lot of time in undeveloped areas and in the foothills around LA and in the Mohave Dessert I was accustomed to venomous snakes so snakes didn't freak me out in Vietnam like it did with those who grew up in the urban cities. But where I grew up there were no rats except for little field mice and I despised those big rats that lived in our hooch. Those who grew up in the cities seemed to be able to deal and live with them, not I. There's all kinds of Vietnam War rat sea stories out there.
It's 1705 hrs here in the Left Coast and I was curious how CNN and MSNBC were honoring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield during all of America's wars. All day long in fact all weekend long Fox News has been honoring our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who paid the ultimate price with their lives. So when I went to CNN, they were honoring the anti-Vietnam War protesters during 1968. Went to MSNBC and it was business as usual...Russia Russia Russia, impeach impeach impeach.
Memorial Day brings many thoughts and emotions. Among those are are our absolute duty to live well, for other Americans gave their lives for us. And we must always be ready to defend our Republic and our liberty with our convictions, our voices, and our lives if necessary. We owe that much to them. To those who gave it all, we will never forget you. Seth
Its the Kraits that had everybody worried.....aka, the Two-Step. The Kraits and the green tree vipers were called “Two step Charlie”, meaning two steps and you drop dead. We didn't mess around, any snakes we came across we killed. Since there was no one color to them. The rats we didn't have any worry.
Snake bites were more common in the Nam than most are aware of. 25 to 50 venomous snake bites per year were reported.
What CNN aired last night was inappropriate to be aired on Memorial Day. It was a program produced by left wing Hollywood liberals titled "1968." The "Kremlin idiots" known as the anti war protesters who backed stabbed their peers who were on the battlefields of Vietnam shouldn't even be mentioned on Memorial Day.
That's because after sucking out my blood they were so yuuuge they went out looking for you for desert.
