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General Philatelic/Gen. Discussion : Have a great Veterans Day!

 

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psgStamper
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11 Nov 2022
01:28:31pm
To all of our US Veterans (and especially Vietnam Veterans, I wanted to share Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1st day of issue stamp. Have a great Veterans Day!

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Al
Collector, Moderator

12 Nov 2022
05:49:11am
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

My dad in Vietnam in 1967 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade somewhere in the Central Highlands. My dad was a chaplain,

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Mike

12 Nov 2022
04:09:06pm
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Happy Veteran Day to each and every Veteran, hand salute to each and everyone of you and thank you for your service. My dad was in the Navy and worked in a machine shop repairing or remaking parts for airplanes in Norfolk, Virginia his whole stint in the Navy, after spending his basic training in Farragut, Idaho in the dead of winter and requesting to be on a ship for the rest of his time. Thankfully, due to his master mechanic abilities was kept ashore helping to keep the fly boys flying. He could operate every machine in the facility at only 22 twenty-two years of age and they felt he could serve the Navy best by working on shore instead of on a ship. He passed away 4 years ago at 95 years of age and is sadly missed.

Mike

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Bobstamp
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13 Nov 2022
11:31:36pm
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Well, I didn't have Veterans Day. However, we Canadians celebrate Memorial Day on the same day, and it's always moving, especially for combat vets like me.

I joined the U.S. Navy in 1962, hoping that I would be assigned to sea duty since I had never seen an ocean or a ship! But the Navy turned me into a hospital corpsman, sent me to Yokosuka, Japan where I worked in a Navy hospital for two years, and then sent me back to California to train with, wait for it, the Marines! It wasn't a surprise. I had learned only after I started Hospital Corps School in San Diego that Navy corpsmen can be seconded to the Marines. Ten months later my Marine Corps rifle company was ambushed by communists, and I was one of 20 wounded Marines, but nevertheless lucky: 10 Marines in my company were killed.

In the many years since then, a subtle change has occurred. For several years, I was downright fearful of telling people that I was a Vietnam vet. Even though I was never personally abused verbally or physically because of my military history, I was well aware that Vietnam vets were not the most popular people around. It was almost as if Americans thought that we vets had started the war. But with the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and the fall from grace of traitors like Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, Americans began to understand that we vets were not perpetrators of war, but victims of it, and I started hearing that now-common phrase "Thank you for your service." I even hear it here in Canada, which was never directly involved in the war but did manage to supply a lot of war matériel to the United States during the war, and actively engaged in espionage in Vietnam for the Americans.

I'm never pleased when someone says "Thank you for your service." Although I know that they mean well, it seems to me that they are saying, "Hey, I get it. I know what you went through!" The trouble is that no one who has not been in combat and seen young men chopped to pieces can possibly have a clue what it's actually like. In short, hearing "Thank you for your service" means almost nothing to me. But I did have one experience that was incredibly rewarding.

Several years ago I bought a Marine Corps red baseball cap decorated with the logo of the 1st Marine Regiment. I was wearing it on a sunny morning walk with my wife on the Coal Harbour Seawall Promenade near our apartment here in Vancouver. I noticed a middle-aged couple going the opposite direction. As we passed, the man said, "Good morning, Marine!" I said "Good morning," but really it had suddenly become the best morning ever. I've never really thought of myself as a Marine. I'm not sure I could have made it through Marine Corps boot camp. But that morning I felt like a Marine, proud of my service, and aware as always that in Vietnam I was not serving my country (which at that time was just the United States). I was serving the Marines in my battalion. I was willing to die for them, just as they were willing to die for me, and some of them actually did just that.

Bob
HM3/USN



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Sally

16 Nov 2022
10:57:55am
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Bob,

Your perspective on thanking veterans for service is interesting. I have always been uncomfortable with that phrase as it just doesn’t seem right. I would never presume to understand what a veteran went through wherever they served but it would be nice to know what to say that would acknowledge their service and sacrifice. Any suggestions as to what should be said?

Sally

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Bobstamp
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16 Nov 2022
05:10:00pm
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Thank you for your thoughtful post, Sally. Too many people make the unsupported assumption that every American soldier who fought in Vietnam was fighting for Freedom, Mom, and apple pie, but that just wasn't the case. The greatest danger facing Freedom, Mom, and apple pie was the ineptitude of America’s political and military leaders.

What was at risk was the lives of my fellow Marines and Navy hospital corpsmen, every one of whom was willing to die to keep me alive, and I was willing to die to keep them alive. We were truly "brothers in arms".

On the day my company was ambushed, my platoon was the "point of the spear" and took the first casualties. Within moments, I "knew" that I would survive the day. Curiously, I wasn't afraid — why fear the inevitable? So I did the only thing I could do, my job — my "service" — which was providing first aid to the men of my company who were wounded. I was just starting to try to help a critically wounded Marine when I was shot through my right thigh; the bullet shattered my femur. It probably won't surprise you to learn that I wasn't as angry with the communist rifleman who shot me as I was with Lyndon Johnson, the president who more than any other American leader bore the responsibility for trying, and failing, to bring all of Vietnam into the sphere of American economic colonialism at the cost of 58,000 young American lives.

Now, what do you say to any Vietnam vets you encounter? Whatever you say should reflect historic reality, which which means that you don't assume they were fighting for anyone or anything other than their own life and the lives of their comrades. While I've always been bothered by the "Thank you for your service" statement, I've never thought about what could be said that would be appropriate. Now I've thought about it! Whatever words you might say, they could reflect the spirit of the following suggestions:

Wow! I didn’t know that you were in Vietnam! That must have given you a different perspective on the world. I hope you weren’t wounded.

I did not know that you are a Vietnam vet. I hope that you didn’t lose too many friends. My mom’s brother, a Marine, was killed during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

You were in Vietnam! I cannot imagine how bad that must have been!

You’re a Vietnam Vet! I didn’t know that. I was in high school when the war ended. I remember talking about it with my history teacher. Would you mind telling me about some of your experiences?

I didn’t know that you were in Vietnam. How long were you there?

Vietnam! Were you drafted?

Vietnam! I thought you were in the Navy! How did you end up in Vietnam?


You might be interested in learning more about my experiences in South Vietnam. See 37 Days in Vietnam — A Navy corpsman with the U.S. Marines.

One more thought: My wife's paternal uncle, George, was a Korean War vet, but he didn't like Vietnam vets, because he believed that we were all taking drugs. There certainly were drug problems as the war dragged on and on and on, but I was there very early — the first Marines on the ground had landed at Da Nang less a year before we arrived. The only drugs I had access to were two or three syrettes of morphine in my Unit One medical bag. We hardly even had alcohol. Our battalion surgeon once went out to the ship that brought us to Vietnam, U.S.S. Paul Revere (APA-248) and returned with a six pack of Carling Black Label beer and gave it to my group of five or six corpsmen. Around the same time, a Marine managed to obtain a fifth of Suntory Japanese whiskey, which he shared with several Marines and corpsman, including me. As I recall, I had about one swallow.

Bob





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psgStamper
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16 Nov 2022
07:10:08pm
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

I guess I don't let it bother me when someone thanks me for my service. My only gripe is that it seems that it is the "in thing" to do these days. It's almost like saying "Thank you" when someone holds a door open for you. Most of us (Vietnam vet's and others) got no "thank you's" when we returned so you'll have to forgive me if I feel a little cynical about the "Thanks" 50-some years later. But as I said, it doesn't really bother me and, in fact, I feel some gratitude and pride. I guess age time passing by will do that for you. Excuse the rambling...

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Al
Collector, Moderator

17 Nov 2022
05:41:41am
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

You can say that about many statements - Sorry for your loss, Merry Christmas, Welcome!

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bigcreekdad
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17 Nov 2022
09:36:12am
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Bobstamps.....I'm going to thank you for your service anyway...I hope it doesn't offend you.

I didn't serve...got a high draft number. Lost two friends and/or classmates in Vietnam. Damn shame, and waste of fine people. I was reading a fishing book by a guy recounting his fishing life when I got to a small paragraph where he mentioned not getting drafted during Vietnam war. This not a direct quote, but what I (will always) remember...."Now that it's safe to say so, I am disappointed in myself for not joining and requesting to go to Vietnam. I think every man should have served to show, if for nothing else, support for our generation". How those words slammed me. I have reread those few sentences many times over the years, but not recently. Not sure if I can even find the book now, but I'll never forget that thought.

Not sure where my son got the genes, but he wanted join the Army when he was 10. He chose his college based on how it's ROTC program was rated nationally. I chose mine based upon beer, friends, and women. My son started after graduation as a 2nd Lt. and platoon leader with 10th Mountain Division. They spent a harrowing 15 months in the Suni Triangle during the Surge 2006-2007. It was a very rough tour. He then got his Ranger tab, and successfully passed the Army Special Forces school earning his green beret. He became a 10 man Team Leader and was somewhere in Afghanistan for 6 months. He carries some deep scars from his tours. As a parent, I was scared as hell the whole time he was In Iraq. Not so much when he was in Afghan, as I new he couldn't be with a better group of men.

I can't imagine what it was like for all those who were in combat positions. AllI can say is God bless them all!

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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!

17 Nov 2022
09:53:31am
re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Being a Canadian and also a bit of a wimp and also quite young at the time, I never signed up to go. I knew the older brother of a friend who did go and managed to have his helicopter shot down twice. He was definitely a changed person when he came home!! I also knew a couple Vietnam vets in Acadia University in the early 70's since that university is very popular with Americans. One, I remember him well, was the hall monitor on my floor in Eaton House or Chipman House. He was an incredibly nervous person, almost jumping at shadows - not scared, just jumpy! I doubt if it was possibly to come back from a war and not have side effects. I have great respect for those of you who serve and a simple "thank you" really isn't enough!!

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psgStamper

11 Nov 2022
01:28:31pm

To all of our US Veterans (and especially Vietnam Veterans, I wanted to share Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1st day of issue stamp. Have a great Veterans Day!

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Al
Collector, Moderator
12 Nov 2022
05:49:11am

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

My dad in Vietnam in 1967 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade somewhere in the Central Highlands. My dad was a chaplain,

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Mike
12 Nov 2022
04:09:06pm

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Happy Veteran Day to each and every Veteran, hand salute to each and everyone of you and thank you for your service. My dad was in the Navy and worked in a machine shop repairing or remaking parts for airplanes in Norfolk, Virginia his whole stint in the Navy, after spending his basic training in Farragut, Idaho in the dead of winter and requesting to be on a ship for the rest of his time. Thankfully, due to his master mechanic abilities was kept ashore helping to keep the fly boys flying. He could operate every machine in the facility at only 22 twenty-two years of age and they felt he could serve the Navy best by working on shore instead of on a ship. He passed away 4 years ago at 95 years of age and is sadly missed.

Mike

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Bobstamp

13 Nov 2022
11:31:36pm

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Well, I didn't have Veterans Day. However, we Canadians celebrate Memorial Day on the same day, and it's always moving, especially for combat vets like me.

I joined the U.S. Navy in 1962, hoping that I would be assigned to sea duty since I had never seen an ocean or a ship! But the Navy turned me into a hospital corpsman, sent me to Yokosuka, Japan where I worked in a Navy hospital for two years, and then sent me back to California to train with, wait for it, the Marines! It wasn't a surprise. I had learned only after I started Hospital Corps School in San Diego that Navy corpsmen can be seconded to the Marines. Ten months later my Marine Corps rifle company was ambushed by communists, and I was one of 20 wounded Marines, but nevertheless lucky: 10 Marines in my company were killed.

In the many years since then, a subtle change has occurred. For several years, I was downright fearful of telling people that I was a Vietnam vet. Even though I was never personally abused verbally or physically because of my military history, I was well aware that Vietnam vets were not the most popular people around. It was almost as if Americans thought that we vets had started the war. But with the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and the fall from grace of traitors like Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, Americans began to understand that we vets were not perpetrators of war, but victims of it, and I started hearing that now-common phrase "Thank you for your service." I even hear it here in Canada, which was never directly involved in the war but did manage to supply a lot of war matériel to the United States during the war, and actively engaged in espionage in Vietnam for the Americans.

I'm never pleased when someone says "Thank you for your service." Although I know that they mean well, it seems to me that they are saying, "Hey, I get it. I know what you went through!" The trouble is that no one who has not been in combat and seen young men chopped to pieces can possibly have a clue what it's actually like. In short, hearing "Thank you for your service" means almost nothing to me. But I did have one experience that was incredibly rewarding.

Several years ago I bought a Marine Corps red baseball cap decorated with the logo of the 1st Marine Regiment. I was wearing it on a sunny morning walk with my wife on the Coal Harbour Seawall Promenade near our apartment here in Vancouver. I noticed a middle-aged couple going the opposite direction. As we passed, the man said, "Good morning, Marine!" I said "Good morning," but really it had suddenly become the best morning ever. I've never really thought of myself as a Marine. I'm not sure I could have made it through Marine Corps boot camp. But that morning I felt like a Marine, proud of my service, and aware as always that in Vietnam I was not serving my country (which at that time was just the United States). I was serving the Marines in my battalion. I was willing to die for them, just as they were willing to die for me, and some of them actually did just that.

Bob
HM3/USN



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Sally
16 Nov 2022
10:57:55am

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Bob,

Your perspective on thanking veterans for service is interesting. I have always been uncomfortable with that phrase as it just doesn’t seem right. I would never presume to understand what a veteran went through wherever they served but it would be nice to know what to say that would acknowledge their service and sacrifice. Any suggestions as to what should be said?

Sally

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Bobstamp

16 Nov 2022
05:10:00pm

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Thank you for your thoughtful post, Sally. Too many people make the unsupported assumption that every American soldier who fought in Vietnam was fighting for Freedom, Mom, and apple pie, but that just wasn't the case. The greatest danger facing Freedom, Mom, and apple pie was the ineptitude of America’s political and military leaders.

What was at risk was the lives of my fellow Marines and Navy hospital corpsmen, every one of whom was willing to die to keep me alive, and I was willing to die to keep them alive. We were truly "brothers in arms".

On the day my company was ambushed, my platoon was the "point of the spear" and took the first casualties. Within moments, I "knew" that I would survive the day. Curiously, I wasn't afraid — why fear the inevitable? So I did the only thing I could do, my job — my "service" — which was providing first aid to the men of my company who were wounded. I was just starting to try to help a critically wounded Marine when I was shot through my right thigh; the bullet shattered my femur. It probably won't surprise you to learn that I wasn't as angry with the communist rifleman who shot me as I was with Lyndon Johnson, the president who more than any other American leader bore the responsibility for trying, and failing, to bring all of Vietnam into the sphere of American economic colonialism at the cost of 58,000 young American lives.

Now, what do you say to any Vietnam vets you encounter? Whatever you say should reflect historic reality, which which means that you don't assume they were fighting for anyone or anything other than their own life and the lives of their comrades. While I've always been bothered by the "Thank you for your service" statement, I've never thought about what could be said that would be appropriate. Now I've thought about it! Whatever words you might say, they could reflect the spirit of the following suggestions:

Wow! I didn’t know that you were in Vietnam! That must have given you a different perspective on the world. I hope you weren’t wounded.

I did not know that you are a Vietnam vet. I hope that you didn’t lose too many friends. My mom’s brother, a Marine, was killed during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

You were in Vietnam! I cannot imagine how bad that must have been!

You’re a Vietnam Vet! I didn’t know that. I was in high school when the war ended. I remember talking about it with my history teacher. Would you mind telling me about some of your experiences?

I didn’t know that you were in Vietnam. How long were you there?

Vietnam! Were you drafted?

Vietnam! I thought you were in the Navy! How did you end up in Vietnam?


You might be interested in learning more about my experiences in South Vietnam. See 37 Days in Vietnam — A Navy corpsman with the U.S. Marines.

One more thought: My wife's paternal uncle, George, was a Korean War vet, but he didn't like Vietnam vets, because he believed that we were all taking drugs. There certainly were drug problems as the war dragged on and on and on, but I was there very early — the first Marines on the ground had landed at Da Nang less a year before we arrived. The only drugs I had access to were two or three syrettes of morphine in my Unit One medical bag. We hardly even had alcohol. Our battalion surgeon once went out to the ship that brought us to Vietnam, U.S.S. Paul Revere (APA-248) and returned with a six pack of Carling Black Label beer and gave it to my group of five or six corpsmen. Around the same time, a Marine managed to obtain a fifth of Suntory Japanese whiskey, which he shared with several Marines and corpsman, including me. As I recall, I had about one swallow.

Bob





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psgStamper

16 Nov 2022
07:10:08pm

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

I guess I don't let it bother me when someone thanks me for my service. My only gripe is that it seems that it is the "in thing" to do these days. It's almost like saying "Thank you" when someone holds a door open for you. Most of us (Vietnam vet's and others) got no "thank you's" when we returned so you'll have to forgive me if I feel a little cynical about the "Thanks" 50-some years later. But as I said, it doesn't really bother me and, in fact, I feel some gratitude and pride. I guess age time passing by will do that for you. Excuse the rambling...

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Al
Collector, Moderator
17 Nov 2022
05:41:41am

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

You can say that about many statements - Sorry for your loss, Merry Christmas, Welcome!

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bigcreekdad

17 Nov 2022
09:36:12am

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Bobstamps.....I'm going to thank you for your service anyway...I hope it doesn't offend you.

I didn't serve...got a high draft number. Lost two friends and/or classmates in Vietnam. Damn shame, and waste of fine people. I was reading a fishing book by a guy recounting his fishing life when I got to a small paragraph where he mentioned not getting drafted during Vietnam war. This not a direct quote, but what I (will always) remember...."Now that it's safe to say so, I am disappointed in myself for not joining and requesting to go to Vietnam. I think every man should have served to show, if for nothing else, support for our generation". How those words slammed me. I have reread those few sentences many times over the years, but not recently. Not sure if I can even find the book now, but I'll never forget that thought.

Not sure where my son got the genes, but he wanted join the Army when he was 10. He chose his college based on how it's ROTC program was rated nationally. I chose mine based upon beer, friends, and women. My son started after graduation as a 2nd Lt. and platoon leader with 10th Mountain Division. They spent a harrowing 15 months in the Suni Triangle during the Surge 2006-2007. It was a very rough tour. He then got his Ranger tab, and successfully passed the Army Special Forces school earning his green beret. He became a 10 man Team Leader and was somewhere in Afghanistan for 6 months. He carries some deep scars from his tours. As a parent, I was scared as hell the whole time he was In Iraq. Not so much when he was in Afghan, as I new he couldn't be with a better group of men.

I can't imagine what it was like for all those who were in combat positions. AllI can say is God bless them all!

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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
17 Nov 2022
09:53:31am

re: Have a great Veterans Day!

Being a Canadian and also a bit of a wimp and also quite young at the time, I never signed up to go. I knew the older brother of a friend who did go and managed to have his helicopter shot down twice. He was definitely a changed person when he came home!! I also knew a couple Vietnam vets in Acadia University in the early 70's since that university is very popular with Americans. One, I remember him well, was the hall monitor on my floor in Eaton House or Chipman House. He was an incredibly nervous person, almost jumping at shadows - not scared, just jumpy! I doubt if it was possibly to come back from a war and not have side effects. I have great respect for those of you who serve and a simple "thank you" really isn't enough!!

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""We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years." George Carlin"
        

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