Vietnam Veterans Homecoming Celebration
Moses E Wilson, Jr.
"Doc Wilson"
Photos courtesy of Moses E Wilson, Jr (ALL PHOTOS - CLICK TO ENLARGE )
The USO of North Carolina and Charlotte Motor Speedway, with support from the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters, honored the service of Vietnam Veterans with an incredible Vietnam Veterans Homecoming Celebration on March 31 for the military members and their friends and families.
Syria just does not get it. Iran will not come into compliance. The Afghans will not cooperate fully against the Taliban so troops may have to stay longer; only in smaller numbers. Iraq may not be as stable as imagined. North Korea. Guantanamo Bay It goes on and on. All the aforementioned have need of an American military presence, and there is a contingent, if not within each hotspot, nearby enough to be injected into the area immediately. The armed forces of the United States are able and ready. Manned totally by an all volunteer force. The best and (arguably) the brightest are sought after and thankfully found and recruited. This group of Americans that have decided to give a portion of their lives, and sometimes their all, are appreciated because of a new found patriotism mixed with a practicality that evidences the reality that although many around the world may want to get into this, the freest society in the world; some others want to destroy this bastion of freedom that we sometimes take for granted. God Bless all who serve. God also allow peace to the families if the loved ones who perished.
There was a war and time when a certain portion of the population placed a stigma on service and there was no distinction given to those who were volunteers or draftees. The Viet-Nam War (Conflict) of the '60s and '70s. Some believe that the real reason the negative feeling towards the war/conflict was because this was the first war that overwhelming majority of the fighting men were African-American, Hispanic and Poor White It is my belief that to provide for themselves a plausible reason for not joining in the fray, whether by freely joining or by conscription, those who stayed home to reap the benefits of freedom: sex, drugs and good times, had to socially destroy the whole of the portion who found themselves fighting in Viet-Nam. To keep the light of scrutiny away from themselves as they turned their backs on this country's call. History would decide who was right or wrong. The groups that stayed home sensing History's glare sought to defect it's illuminating brilliance. They knew that in order to have a meaningful existence those who fought would have to carry the same sorrowful stigma and withstand the same vitriol, as a group, even unto death. Therefore the war was declared illegal and impossible to win. The blame was given not to the politicians or to the demonstrators; the blame was laid at the feet of the ordinary soldier.
After the conflict had ended the same side that had felt social victory knew that those coming home would not feel comforted with the new found knowledge that while their lives had been placed in mortal danger and even though the doors were opened to a new life in other countries eager to show it's distaste for the conflict (think Canada) they had stayed, fought and survived. Not one, one mind you, collective thank you from a non-caring America, social or governmental. Not a coalition of any type, especially political from a Federal Congress or Senate who were, along with Presidents of both parties responsible for 58,212 lives lost, 153,452 wounded and 1,678 missing.
THE MOVING WALL (MEW,JR)
Going into the list of those who truly can be blamed, not for the war, but for the reception of those who did the fighting need not be discussed or argued in this tome. No, this piece is a reminder that those that 'did the do' as we used to say are still among us. I count myself as one of the number. I am still here. Proud to have served, and even more proud to have survived.
Greatly saddened though that some that I knew, and many I did not know, did not. God Bless them All. God also allow peace to the families and loved ones of those who perished.
