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Its Memorial Day, and 60 minutes aired a piece on the Iowa National Guard. The news pun dent follow the guys for about two years from the time of notification of the call up to duty, to the training in Mississippi, to insertion into the theater. The first causalities, the changing of attitude and the announcement of the 125 day extension of the tour in Theater. That with a piece on the impact of the announcement of the extension on family back home.
(this has to be the worst communicated military action, keeping the public informed on the mission, of all time. Good analysis would have made a huge difference)
I am in some what of a unique position. My Grandfather fought in WW I and WW II. My Father enlisted in the Navy the summer of 1941 and after Boot Camp in August of 1941 was assigned to an old ship station in Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7th, he was assigned to a pier watch, guarding the Dumpster. When all Hell broke loose, he said he dove into that same dumpster and when he emerged, he was in the middle of that same Hell. His ship sunk tied to the pier, and he was reassigned to a ship that was sunk somewhere between New Caledonia and Australia. He survived long enough to get discharged at the end of the War and reenlisted in the Air Force and went to Korea for a three year tour there. At the end of his career in the Air Force, He was transferred along with his B-52 Squadron to fly missions over Viet Nam in 1966 and 1967. I enlisted in the Navy in 1965 and did my first of 3 tours in 1967 and finished my enlistment on the river around Cam Ranh Bay in August 1970. My son is now in the Coast Guard in Honolulu assigned to Counter Terrorist inspections. He proudly tells me the Coast Guard is known as "life savers, while his crew is life takers." Its a necessary job, and true to the heritage, he volunteered, as did we all.
The hardest thing for me was to admit just how intently the experience had impacted me. And until I did that, I was not able to understand some of the attitudes of my father and grandfather and many of their peers and associates. After I was able to reconcile the changes that I had underwent, only then did their intensity make since to me. Only then did my own issues make since to me. The anger they displayed at times about the most trivial of disagreement. The need to be able to adapt, to get along with what you had at hand, not what you thought you needed. The requirement for sacrifice when it seemed that all around you were able to want and get the "extras" in life. The philosophy of sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.
The bottom line is that all of us who come home, illregardless of how long we were exposed to the atrocities of war, no matter which campaign we participated in, are impacted by the experience far beyond our own ability to comprehend what impact the experience has had on our soul.
