Saturday, November 7, 2009

Gregory's Two Americas (14)

I Open with my son's home office in a far of land I cannot reveal. But he is my son and he continues the fight although his father, (me), must accept I am finished in the world of the Special Intelligence Field, and can only look back and look on. Stay safe my son, stay safe. Today I start by remembering my leaving Vietnam, to return to my wife and son who is now a little over a year old, and I know he will not know me. It will be interesting, I thought as I boarded the plane, another charger, out of Vietnam, that I will be returning home to not only my wife, but my son. My son will now have learned some words, and I tried to imagine how he will receive me, how I will receive him, I thought about Val and will I be the same man she married in Harrogate England already several years behind us. At least as I leave Vietnam, I will be going back home to my America. But, leaving will mean leaving good men that I have learned to love and depend on behind and may never see or hear from again. Going home, going to rejoin my family and start to think about my new assignment, going home means leaving behind fellow soldiers who will continue the good fight, one only most soldiers understand or agree with. Looking into the eyes of those South Vietnamese people, who begged America to defend them against a Communist North Vietnam, let you know the cost of pulling out will be the end of a free South Vietnam. And that is exactly what happened!

The plane ride home would allow me time to reflect on the year I just spent, along with so many fellows American soldiers, defending a doomed nation. I did not know then, nor would I for a few years ahead, that the eyes of the South Vietnamese citizens foretold of a pending defeat and their freedom would be lost forever to the brutal dictatorship of the North. It is sad to say, but I soon forgot about the strife of those wonderful people, the Vietnamese, and even our brave young soldiers as my thinking turned to my wife and son, waiting for me to return home. Although my mind left behind my fellow soldiers on my return trip home, it would only be temporary and my heart would fill with the pain of their continued fruitless effort, at a very high cost of life and many more wounded for a nation our government would abandon. But, for a short while I would settle down and let my mind wander as my thoughts turned home to think about Val and Milt III. This is where my mind would remain for the rest of the trip. It was easier to think about my family and what was waiting for me when I got home than to continue to dwell on the horrors of war. The trip would leave me conflicted for the rest of my life, never again would I feel good about turning my thoughts from my fellow soldiers left behind as I was returning home with all of my limbs, with some shrapnel that would take years to eventually work its way out of my body, and other wounds received, but they all would eventually heal, my mind never would.

The plane I was on landed first in Ankara Alaska, where I could not miss an opportunity to call Val and let her know I was almost home, and I hoped that my nervous excitement did not show too much, after all , I was a soldier, and I wanted my inner strength to be dominant. That gave in to her voice, which clearly was filled with nervous excitement, and we just did what all lovers do, and my thoughts really did turn to her with my imagination going wild as what it would be like to be with her again, in every way. Then, I was on the plane again, and I knew that I would soon be landing at Travis where a beautiful young wife, and a son I had not seen in over a year, would be waiting for me, along with my mom and dad. Oh, to be young again, and filled with all those wonderful feelings young lovers have. The nice thing about our love is that no matter how old we are the beauty of our youth remains. This is and will continue to be my America, the American family, sharing the spotlight with serving as an American Soldier. Even after I retired, I would always reminisce about the twenty plus years I served in the United States Army Security Agency (USASA), which was later renamed to the "Intelligence and Security Command" (INSCOM). I would always be a soldier, and would never be able to detach myself from those now serving to protect this great nation. My America will always include all military forces; it would not be my America with them.

As I stepped off the plane, felt my right foot first touch the soil of my country, the feeling I had would only be exceeded by the feeling of my wife’s body pressed against mine, as she held my son, who stared at a stranger. It would take awhile for Milt III to understand that this stranger hugging his mother, and kissing her is his father, but at that moment, my mind was on just holding my family, which were my wife and son. My mom and dad, being a military family, understood and remained in the back ground until it was time for us to disconnect and walk over to them, where I let them know they were an important part of my life as I hugged them and told them how much I loved them. Another part of my America, family, being a part of a family that shared a mutual respect for what made up the core of who I was, and continue to be. I’ll not reveal the secrets of two lovers who had been a part so long and rejoined after a very long year of separation. It must have been difficult for all of them, not knowing if their son, husband, brother, would return from a war only those who were there would ever understand it. However, being home was all that mattered at that moment in my life.

My next assignment would be Fort Gordon, Augusta Georgia, where I would teach young soldiers, night field training, in a communications field. This was a temporary stop while I waited for Val to get her citizenship and then and only then, would I receive my special clearance needed for my next intelligence assignment that would take me to Ethiopia, in East Africa. Val would once again be joining me on a venture to a foreign country that was in turmoil and soon would be where my second son, now joined with his Grandma and Grandpa in heaven, would be born. That would be a night never forgotten and part of another insight to my America. As for now, I reflect on what is happening in congress, this night as I write this column, a vote for a health bill that will destroy my America’s economy, and I wonder how any Americans would allow this to happen, how our elected officials would, no, are, casting their votes (on a Liberal House) to pass this bill. How can they vote to leave our children with a debt that they will never be able to repay? My America is about to be disrupted by power hungry congressional liberals, and may be the first step to thrust our nation into 3rd world status, and I pray that somehow if fails take place, not today, not ever.

I hope that you are able to see through my life experience, the America that remains to be my focus. So many wonderful people are continuing the good fight to prevent our elected politicians from taking our country to a place none of us want to be. When I saw so many “Tea Partiers” go back to Washington, from as far away as Hawaii, to let our politicians know that “We the People” do not now, nor ever want “Government Healthcare”! But, they (the Liberal Politicians) ignored those thousands of incredible American’s who came to let America hear their voice, more important, let Washington DC hear their voice, as it is there that our fate will be determined. So far, most Americans have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed the fruits of an America that has grown more than any other country in the world, until greed and power hungry forces, both in the economic world and the political world destroyed our financial institutions. Now, a fight for our America’s future is going on, and it is the greedy, for “We the People”! I am on the side, of “We the People”, and will continue to be on that side as that is where my America exists. I believe in Americans and I believe that “We the People” will be heard, we will not be tossed aside by the radical liberals who disregard, what “We the People” want, and just continue to spend our hard earned money, “taken” from us in the form in taxes, while marching on with an agenda that none of us want.

I cannot believe what I hear on the floor of our congress, the falsehoods told by liberals who know the truth, but continue to indulge their attempt to steal the America I know and love from us, and the futile fight by the conservatives to hang on. What has happened to us that we all are not rising up to yell out from the top of every mountain how we feel about what is going in what should be a place we trust to pass bills that protect the nation, not destroy it. I know that there are more than just the “Tea Party groups” that love this country enough to give so much of their time, money and selves, to let congress know that we do not want Government Healthcare, we want our Republic back! Little by little they are chipping away at our freedoms and constitutional rights, in order to steal away or America by stealth measures, and most Americans will never know what has happened until it is too late. Soon the vote will be in, the Minority Leader of the House; Republican John Boehner is making his closing statement. We will all know in just moments, as the House will soon cast their votes. They have enough Liberals to win this round, but our fight must not end here, regardless what happens tonight.

And with the passing by the House of HR 3962, the Democratic, very Liberal, Government Health Care Bill, I can only wonder what lay ahead for our great country. It passed at exactly 11:14 PM (2314 hours). It passed with one “Republican” siding with the Democrat Liberals to make it 220 – 2015, with 38 Liberals voting against this arbitration of something vile and evil. Our democracy is in danger, our constitution at risk, and so many fail to grasp the very real threat to the stability of our future economic health. My America is trying, we just cannot let up, there is far too much at stake! I go to sleep tonight with a heart filled with hope, but despair has a strangle hold on my conscious thoughts about this day in history. It is a day to put on your calendar, to recall in the future the day our country died, or at least fell asleep. I am unable to continue my thoughts for today, as tears bluer my vision, the pain of watching this vote come to pass, I close by saying, and praying, that this is not the end, but only the beginning of the revolution, the revolution that returns America, my America back to her senses. As “Saturday Night Live” comes alive, I collapse into what will be in short order, a deep comma! While in my comma, I will think only of My America, and all those who support her. I leave you as I return to beckon my memories of the 1st Air Mobil Calvary Division and my devotion to my band of brothers. I loved them then, and I love them now.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Gregory's Two Americas

This article is from my column posted in the (No We Wont-NWW site) It is my 12 posting and deals with how Viet Nam relates to my "Two Americas".

My arrival at the airfield located in the southern portion of South Vietnam (Cam Ranh Bay) was one of mixed emotions. My first thought was one of euphoria, an excitement that only a young, highly motivated Buck Sergeant (Sgt E-5) would have as I was about to follow the long line of Gregory’s who have proceeded me in defending our country and it’s Allies. My euphoria and excitement was short lived as I observed the sight of those black “Body Bags” being placed in refrigeration unites and loaded onto aircraft on their journey home. As the group I was in just got of the charter Boeing 707, we simultaneously stopped, came to attention and gave those brave soldiers a salute, and I shed the first of what would be many. Most of us would shed tears shed for someone we would come to know, then hear their last breath, and watch the life disappear from their eyes as they passed from this world into one that he or she believed in. The haunting desire for me to join my comrades in arms in a fight that most would never understand, many would never believe in, and all would learn to hate for taking so many of our best, would change to one of concentrating on fighting and learning to respect my enemy.

Yes, I said respect my enemy! After all, those young men and women from North Vietnam were more like those I have met all over the world, needing and wanting the same things as we, in America, do. Their love of their country must have been every bit as deep as mine; they fought just as hard, just as deep, and with just as much conviction as any of us. They were so young and so afraid, and so much like us, they wanted to return home to those they had left to join in a fight that no one understood, and no one wanted, with the exception of a our governments, who felt that each were on the right side of the war. I could understand their side, wanting to reunite their country (North and South); after all, did we not fight a similar war. The difference was one was to free a race of people from slavery, so we have been taught, while the other was to enslave those who would fall under the rule of communist North Vietnam! War has always been a mystery to me, and probably most people who are not engaged in deciding either to start a war, or end one. I will not question my government for any war I have witnessed in my life time, I will only believe in how I feel about the war I requested, volunteered to be a part of, as that is how I was brought up. I do not apologize for my desire to be a part of a war that I believed was to stop the spread of communism. It is something I was raised and taught to see as a threat to the very freedoms I have enjoyed all my life, with the exception of my year in Vietnam, a war to this day I believe was fought by those who’s boots were on the ground, for the right reasons. (Most soldiers I fought alongside of felt as I did, and still do, none of us will ever understand how any American would give support to our enemy, an enemy who killed and tortured our fellow soldiers, but many did just that) My America supported those who served their country in combat, the other America, well; they aided and abetted our nation’s enemy!

I could tell you many stories of war, how many times my life was saved, how many times someone else died in my place, but I’ll just relate one, as it best describes my America, and how it behaves. It was Feb, 3rd, 1968, and TET had just exploded across the nation of South Vietnam. I was at Camp Evans, and we had just received orders to prepare to head North (we were going to Hanoi and end this crazy war) but then something happened. In any case I heard they needed someone to go to a place called PK-17, and ARVN compound, and as usual, I jumped at the chance to do what I could to help my unit. At the time I had no Idea that TET had kicked off.

Bottom line I was taken to PK-17, just outside of Hue, by helicopter and set up radio communications to the Brigade (remember, I was with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Airmobile Cavalry Division, at the time) and ran through an intense hail of gun fire, mortar fire, and whatever else that the retreating North Vietnam Army could toss at this small compound, to guide the convoy in and direct them to the bunker I chose for the command post. It was during this time that a young black soldier grabbed me, and yelled not to go out as mortars were hitting all around. This soldier took the full blast of a mortar that hit just outside the entryway, protecting me from being seriously injured. I believe that I would have been killed had it not been for this brave fellow soldier who wrapped his arms around me and was mortally wounded. His blood mixed with my own, and I knew that this bleeding soldier was from My America! I will not go into the details that followed as I try to erase most of those days from my mind. I’ll never forget those who I served with, maybe never recall many of their names, but will always remember all of their faces. While this young black soldier was saving my life, other Americans, definitely not from my America, was sending blood, food, and sweaters (to keep our enemy warm) to the North Vietnam soldiers. I know, I saw the addresses on boxes, labels addressed from Berkley California and other Liberal colleges, who did not want us to hurt the soldiers who were killing us, and yes torturing us, and that I will never release from my memory banks, to recall those events would destroy what little sanity I have left.

We would fly over 800 helicopters to Kason, and go into the A Shau Valley, and so on. But what I think are my best memories during my year there in Vietnam, is my R&R trip to Hawaii, where I spent 4 nights and 5 days with my beautiful wife, and you can be sure that I will never reveal my nights or days there with Val. I will say only that on the 5th day, I never saw so many men, along with their wives and girlfriends, shed so many tears, to include Val and I, as I did that day. When I first headed to Vietnam it was with the excitement of joining my fellow soldiers in battle, this time, there was no excitement, only the new understanding of the reality of war, and the nature of killing or be killed, along with the thought of how many more will I see die before I went home, if I did. I will have to leave Vietnam now as my memories are becoming more and more alive and what those memories are bringing to me I do not want to relive. I’ll just say, Vietnam is just one more place I learned that there are two Americas, the one I love, and the one that I’ll never understand, and I don’t think I even want too. It took many years for all the shrapnel to finally work its way out of my body, in tiny chunks of metal that formed a pimple, and then worked its way out. My wife was my doctor at home, assisting to remove the fragments with a pair of tweezers, never asking, never wanting me to reach back into my brain and relive the year that I finally grew up and became a man. It was that year that I learned more about myself than at any other time to date. I also learned a lot more than I want to admit, about the other America, one I really did not know nor understand at the time, but became all too clear as time and knowledge enlightened me.

I recall all the movies made about communism in the United States over the years. “Reds” is the one that I recall the most and raised my first questions about how could any American even think about being a communist, and gave me even more reason to follow my father’s footsteps and enlist into the Army, choosing Intelligence as my field to spend over 20 years in. The more I learned about communism and Marxism and extremist views, the more confused I became as to how any man or woman would chose to believe in those ideologies. The farther away the Vietnam war drifted into my memory, the more confident that America would never turn to those extreme views, I was so wrong, but it did prove to me that there really are two Americas. I am so glad that I am a part of mine. Mfgjr