General Discussion

My father was a career Marine officer. He was stationed at Red Beach north of Danang in 1966-1967. I remember my father calling home via Ham Radio operators in the U.S. That didn't last long when he told my mother that the road he traveled to be able to call us was full of landmines, and my mother did not want him to get killed in order to call us. I remember him telling us that the base barber was Viet Cong and was found dead one day on the airport tarmac. I will always remember eating dinner on TV trays every night and watching the nightly news where they always posted the number of American and Viet Cong deaths. It was so depressing, and I would wonder would there ever be a day when we would not see those horrible death numbers.

We visited a fellow colonel's home in New Bern, NC one fall day, probably in the late 60's. Their older son had just graduated from the Naval Academy as a young lieutenant. He was going to be a Marine like his dad. He was sent to Viet Nam around Thanksgiving and was dead by Easter. His father believed he had been fragged by his own troops. That family was never the same after that.

Now to the present, my older son joined the Marines in 2001. He served two deployments. He crossed the border into Iraq the first day of the war. His second deployment was to Ramadi,, which was a nightmare. He came back very broken and has 75% disability. It took him about 10 years to climb out of the abyss he was in. I understand how terrible these never-ending wars are. I have a 16-year-old grandson who is a great kid but needs some discipline in his life. Over my dead body, will any of my grandsons join the military, especially with Trump as president.