My dad grew to hate war, and I remember him today.

Like your grandfathers, he never spoke much of his time overseas, although he saw a lot of active combat. He was a “ground pounder”, infantryman in the Army. First line of defense in those days. He landed at Iwo Jima, that much I do know. He came home with two swords and three knives, taken in combat, he would only describe in the barest detail how he came to own them.

While he was serving his country, my mother was moving from base to base with my brothers. She tells of train rides across the country with 3 small boys, sack lunches and warm water. It was the 1940′s after all. Rationing was in effect, people grew their own food in “victory gardens”, anything they could do to ease the burden on the government to ensure that money could be spent on the war effort. We wanted to WIN.

The difference between Vietnam and any other previous war or “conflict”, in my late ’60′s early 70′s opinion, (formed them, still held today) is we had no reason to be there, no horse in the race, so to speak. Again, in my opinion, we could have won that war at any time and stopped the slaughter of young Americans and the further destruction of our reputation as evidenced by our shameful departure from the country. We will never be able to make amends for the actions taken as we left Vietnam.

We have mistreated our veterans by making their service the focus of our frustration about a war that we disagree with, making the celebration of Memorial Day all the more important as a way to let them know how grateful we are as a country for their service, no matter the end result.