Yeah, I had a couple of crazy Uncles who served in Nam. My Uncle Jesse was a
Green Beret and I never heard much about his war days....but Uncle Junior was a mans man. 101st out of Fort Campbell. He wore the "chicken man" tag with pride. He did 5 tours of Nam, volunteered for 4 of them. He was a Chief Warrant Officer and flew choppers. He received all kinds of awards and had an entire bedroom at his house full of awards, medals, equipment and memories......I never got to go in that bedroom, he kept a padlock on it and would not discuss it for most of my life. I spent many, many days at Fort Campbell with my Uncle. To this day one of my most prized possessions is the helmet he wore in Nam in his first tour. He was taken as POW and was MIA for 6 months, when his chopper was shot down on his first tour. He was able to withstand the war prison, encouraged others around him to not give up hope, motivated them to stay strong and be patient.....when the time was right, they overran the guards, escaped and made it back to their own men. He was then sent back to Kentucky and told he no longer had to go to Nam, he said the hell with that.....and volunteered, for 4 more tours of Nam. I can still remember it ending and him coming home when I was about 6-7 years old. We had a heck of a party that day.....and I still remember that. We all took turns wearing Juniors flight suit.
I always wanted to hear war stories........and Uncle Junior refused to ever talk to me about it. I guess deep down he had a lot of bad memories of Nam. About 10-15 years ago Uncle was diagnosed with throat cancer. I still remember him sitting me down and telling me why he never wanted me to know what happened in that war, he was just trying to protect me. He told me of the torture, the pain, the sadness. He told me about killing innocent children and women because they would walk into camp. He told me about the nice lady that would bring them eggrolls everyday......who one day walked into camp with eggrolls, only to blow up to kill as many "chicken men" that she could kill. He told me the story of seeing kids walk up to his men for candy, only to blow up and kill US soldiers. He couldnt start to remember how many of his buddies were killed. How many chopper pilots he lost. He told me how he was tortured in prison. How he had his bones broken and refused to say a word. How he would go a week at a time without food.
I remember once asking him........why did you volunteer to go back? Without missing a beat he said to kill as many of them that he could kill. He wanted revenge, plain and simple.
At about 40 years of age....that day, I understood why Uncle Junior didn't share that with me when I was younger. To be honest, I still have a hard time thinking of the weight and thoughts he carried for a lifetime. Uncle Junior died about 6 months after being diagnosed with throat cancer, and in a really odd twist...Uncle Jesse died of throat cancer within 6 months of his brother dying. That was hard for me. They were a couple of my childhood hero's. They were my GI J's. I thought they were invincible and would never die.
I tip my hat to everyone of these men who have fought for our freedoms. It's because of each and everyone of them that we have the freedom to do what we do in this country. It is also because of the people like them......that makes me refuse to ever turn on our military or our country. We may be a ******** right now, but even on her worse day........America is still better than 99% of the world! It is because of those who serve.....that we are given these freedoms and I will never forget what they have done and the sacrifice they made for this country.
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