THANKSGIVING THAT MEANS SOMETHING
Every Thanksgiving I look at this picture. It is a portion of my rifle company D/1-502/101st in Vietnam. This is just before we moved out for Lam Son 719. They were Infantry. They were drafted. They could not avoid it. They came reluctantly but served with honor, respect and dedication. They were hippies, pot smokers, anti-war to the core but they were hellacious in combat-did what they were told and better and closed with and destroyed the enemy with vigor. They held together and did what had to be done. I was immensely proud of their service. Throughout our history, we have these faces step forward and do what others would not do. They moved forward despite circumstances and always did what had to be done. Study these faces. They are us and what we are all about. For these and those before and after, we owe a Thanksgiving.
Operations executive driving performance improvements to deliver explosive growth
2 年Well spoken Sir. Thanks for sharing.
FP&A, Budget, Compliance, Financial Project Mgmt, DCAA/DCMA, Internal Audits
2 年Thank god for you and them!!! Seriously!
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Retired at United States Army Reserve
2 年Airborne brother! God bless them all.
VP for Support Services at Enterprise Solutions & Retired Soldier
2 年Sir thanks for sharing, & a stark contract from the wars since 9-11. I made the following comments a couple years ago on Veterans Day, not to diminish the service of others, but to recognize the service of those Americans drafted into service. The post 9-11 generation is different from any previous wartime generation: 100% of this generation are volunteers. In all of our previous wars, Americans were drafted into service: WWI (3M), WWII (10M), Korea (1.5M) & Vietnam (2.2M). Many Americans volunteered, but many were drafted. None of my generation has been drafted. Volunteers aren’t better, just different. All had individual motivations for volunteering, but none were drafted. And in my option, in some respects, less deserving of the adoration the American people bestow on Veterans today. If anyone deserves such adoration, I’d argue it might be those Americans who were drafted for our previous wars – taken from their lives, homes & families – to serve, whether they wanted to or not. Yet they dutifully went into the Armed Services, and served honorably until these wars ended or their tours were complete, because that is what Americans did – because there was a responsibility that came with citizenship.