to Vietnam
"Did you know one of them?"
asked the guard at The Wall.
From a young girl came the answer...
"Sir...I knew them all."
"They were part of my past and my future...
came a voice quiet and low.
A past and a future, I'll now never know.
A past rich in anecdotes and old stories...
Of days gone by full of wondrous glories!
And a future I'll never share...
Because they are all gone now...
And that grief's hard to bear.
They were husbands, and brothers
They were sons...one and all...
They were wives, daughters, and sisters
Who answered the call."
�
My heart breaks in two when I look at this "stone"
I stand here and cry...but I don't stand here alone.
For I stand in a "River of Tears" that runs deep...
In the midst of despair...and it keeps me from sleep.
"Can you answer this question...tell me Sir do you know?
Why did they all die...did they all have to go?
Couldn't we have loved the problem away?
Then we wouldn't have had such a high price to high.
I've heard about the blood and tears that were shed...
The loves which were lost...and the countless dead."
Well, the Guard just stood silent...
A tear fell from his face.
Could he speak the real truth...
here in this scared place?!
Another tear fell from his eye...
How could he stand there and tell her a lie?
He thought long and hard before he faced her again.
And started by saying...
"They were all brave women and men.
The reasons they went are plain to see...
They went to ensure you would always be free!
It's wrong they went, but didn't all come home...
and it's a crime some have been left there to suffer alone!"
"I wish solving the world's problems didn't always mean war...
But they think we don't have a choice anymore."
"A lesson can be learned...standing here at The Wall...
A heart-wenching lesson by the world...one and all."
"If we'd stop for one moment...
And see eachother as one...
We'd see there is something besides war to be done."
The young girl nodded silently...
then turned to go.
She was confident she had heard what she needed to know.
There were still people who understood...
Not just those with a want to fight...
Maybe this country was still safe...
for those who want what's right.
Written by:� Tery
by the United States Postal Service
September 17, 1999
A First Day Cover contains a Postage stamp postmarked on a standard size envelope by the post office on the very first day that the stamp was available to the public. The postmark is used only for that one day for the public. The envelope does not have an address on it. The design on this envelope is a called a cachet. This particular cachet was done in a very limited edition of just 100 copies. Thus a first day cover is a very limited edition collectible.
"When the Good Lord was creating Vietnam Vets"
When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, He was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared.
"You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order?
A Nam vet has to be able to run 5 miles through the bush with a full
pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep his weapons clean and operable.
He has to be able to sit in his hole all night during an attack, hold
his buddies as they die, walk point in unfamiliar territory known to be
VC infested, and somehow keep his senses alert for danger.
He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats and very
little rest. And he has to have 6 pairs of hands."
The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no way."
The Lord say's "It's not the hands that are causing me problems....
It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam vet has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant grass, another
pair here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in
front that can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say,
"You'll make it".......when he knows he won't.
"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can carry a
wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a firefight, calm the fears of the latest FNG, and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck."
The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?"
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, recite all
his general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War, and still keep his sense of humor."
"This Nam vet also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with
ambushes from hell, comfort a fallen soldier's family, and then read in his hometown paper how Nam vets are baby killers, psychos, addicts, killers of innocent civilians."
The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being
vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very ones he fought for."
Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and
said, "There's a leak...I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."
"That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die,
for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag,
for the terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone
with it's demons with no one to care or help."
"You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear.
The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant
shores..
"I didn't put it there," he said.
(pause for reflection)........God bless Nam vets
(Author Unknown)
Arlington National Cemetary
