You put a gun in my hand, And you hide from my eyes

As a young man, facing a draft into the Viet Nam-era Army, I did everything I could to avoid service.

In 1969, I turned 20. The Viet Nam war was raging on, and the Nixon Administration, in an effort to add more bodies to the Army, held the first Draft Lottery on Dec. 1. Based on birthdays, mine was drawn 13th. Holy crap!

I was actually called up for a physical, but managed to keep from being drafted. Orthodontic headgear and a bum knee worked that magic. But with such a low number, I was initially pretty scared. I did discuss going to Canada with a new friend from Vancouver, who told me she could find me places to stay, but once my deferment came through, I stayed in the US.

I felt strongly then, as I still feel, that the Viet Nam war was a disaster for the US and for Viet Nam. Much like Iraq, we wasted money and lives on a stupid ideological war that benefitted no one except for military-industrial manufacturers.

All that said, I have no problem with the many who went and served. Some felt they had no choice, others disagreed with the war but felt they had to serve the country. And some actually felt it was a just war that called them up. Regardless, all were brave, and all who served deserve our undying respect.

Because someday, those in our military may have to fight in a necessary war, to save lives, help battle genocide, or stop starvation somewhere. As much as I hate war and violence of any kind, it would be foolish to believe that it won't ever happen. And when it does, we will need our Armed Services.

The men & women in our military do what the civilian leaders tell them to do, go where they are told to go. I truly believe our new President will not dishonor them the way the Bush administration has. As our brave defenders, they deserve better.

Happy Veteran's Day.

Veterans Day

skippy said it better than I can.

Monkeyfister said it better than I can.

Poets who said it better than I can:

The Last of the Light Brigade
In Flanders Field
Dulce Et Decorum Est
War Is Kind And Other Lines

Song writers who said it better than I can:

Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire

The Grave by Don McLean

Masters of War by Bob Dylan

My humble offering:

When we send our men and women to die for us, people who volunteered to die in a just cause, we are honor bound to tell them the truth and make sure the cause is truly just.

We are honor bound to equip them as best we can afford.

We are honor bound to take care of their families while they serve, and especially while they are deployed.

We are honor bound to take care of them when they come home.

No matter how they come home, whether it is only as memories, remains, wounded or relatively whole.

We are honor bound to our veterans, and if we sever those bonds we've sacrificed our children and our honor.

Nothing has changed since last year's Veterans Day except the record number of deaths since then in both Iraq and Afghanistan.


SteveAudio: Great post, Sailor. Let me add my favorite war poem (God, what a contradiction!):

Dolls' faces are rosier but these were children
their eyes not glass but gleaming gristle
dark lenses in whose quicksilvery glances
the sunlight quivered. These blenched lips
were warm once and bright with blood
but blood
held in a moist bleb of flesh
not spilt and spatter'd in touseled hair.


In these shadowy tresses
red petals did not always
thus clot and blacken to a scar.


These are dead faces:
wasps' nests are not more wanly waxen
wood embers not so grely ashen.


They are laid out in ranks
like paper lanterns that have fallen
after a night of riot
extinct in the dry morning air.

Herbert Read