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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (135239)	6/1/2004 10:41:48 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Hell, everybody I know who was draft age avoided the draft, or pulled every string possible to avoid being infantry. Crazy to volunteer to be thrown into the meat chopper.

To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (135239)	6/2/2004 12:16:28 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Sarmad, as you know, there were many ways to serve in Vietnam without suffering the risk of injury or death from combat. Depending on your assignment, the risk of dying from any cause was sometimes lower than if you were on the streets at home. I think Iraq is different but that's the way it was back then. I didn't, and don't, have a problem with those who didn't go. If Bush wasn't prepared to serve in Vietnam, that was fine with me. If someone took off for Canada, I didn't care. If someone genuinely, based on principles, protested the war and refused to serve, I admired their having the courage of their convictions. I didn't, and don't, call any of that cowardice. Cowardice means something else to me. I saw lots of guys who couldn't do as much as they wanted to do in Vietnam. One guy stayed in the jungle and tried, but everytime we hit the shit he dropped his gun in an uncontrollable panic and fled. He kept trying but he just couldn't do it. I don't call that cowardice. He was doing his best, it's just that he had a heavier emotional load than most and he couldn't pack it. One of the bravest things I saw in Vietnam was from a new guy who had just gotten to the jungle. He was in my squad and I had hardly met him when we ran into some light sniper fire. I was walking point and on my way back up the trail I found the new guy in the tendons of a big tree. I asked the guy beside him why they weren't pulling back and he just pointed at the new guy. The new guy was shaking like a leaf, his eyes were rolled back in his head and he was soaked from the crotch of his pants to his ankles with urine. I crouched beside him and told him we were moving out and I needed someone to walk the flank for us. I thought he didn't hear me and then he started to shake his head "no" but suddenly stopped. He took a deep shuddering breath and his face contorted with effort and then he tried to stand up. His legs were shaking so badly he couldn't stand so he used his M-16 as a lever and with his back against the tree he finally made it to his feet. He was wobbling like a newborn trying to stand for the first time. I motioned him to the side and said, "Over there." I thought he couldn't walk but he took a shuddering breath, used his rifle for a crutch and slowly moved off a few meters to the side. I didn't really need anyone on the flank and it wasn't dangerous, but he didn't know that. He was so scared that it was hard to even look at him but he wobbled and caned his way up the slight ridge for about 70 meters before I stopped and let him recover. I'd given him a chance to get back on the horse and he did it. I remember that like it was yesterday even though I've dimmed on most of the things you'd think I'd remember. Some of us did things that most would think were far more remarkable but whenever I hear the word courage I get a mental picture of that guy and the strength it took to gather himself to be something other than the piss-soaked, helpless man in the crotch of that tree, even though he thought it meant he would die. He was still alive when I left. If he survived the 4 months he had left in country, I'm sure he's never recovered from the effects of the constant fear he carried all those months so long ago, but he carried that burden like a man. The coward was the West Point Company Commander I had when I first came to the company. He was fear stricken, which was ok, but he was also prepared to put others at greater risk in order to lessen his own risk; a thing he did at every opportunity. He was inept and we worked around him in order to stay alive. He was a liar and he constantly lied to his superiors about what we found in the jungle and how many NVA we killed. I spoke to him on my second day in the company and started with "you stupid sonofabitch." I got away with it because I was right but we never spoke to each other again. When his 5 1/2 month officer tour was over he'd lied his way into a position as a general's orderly and thus gotten on the fast track to promotion. I have often wondered how far he went in the Army. Now that's a "real coward" and we shouldn't water that down by using the term to refer to those who let others serve, because they could.