(Sorry for the length of this.)
Always had a special place in my heart for the Nam vets.

As a kid, like most kids back then, me and my buddies would admire the high school guys...captain of the football team, the world’s best (to us) point guard, the ace lefty, our quarterback...etc. We’d watch ‘em play their sport...we’d darn near genuflect when we’d see ‘em around town, we idolized them and we wanted to be them!

When they graduated, many of them disappeared. We never knew where really they went, we just knew they were gone. There was a time I saw one of them again...he was on crutches and had lost a leg. My mom told me he lost it fighting for America. I cried. Then there were more sightings, more injuries and there was more crying. I learned that some, I’d never see around town again. Some died...some they didn’t know for sure about, but they never returned. None of it made sense to me.

In my 20’s, when I played music for a living, I met a Nam vet that would cry when we played certain songs. I’d talk to him on break and he’d thank me for the song(s). He told me that they made him cry because he loved them, but he hated that they were ever written. I didn’t understand like he did, but I understood. He had a lot of buddies and they all seemed to feel like he did...they were still hurting. Their hurt, hurt me. But they did seem to benefit from talking to each other about it.

I got all the biggest bands in our tri-State area to donate their time for a benefit. The goal was to get them seed money for starting an outreach chapter. I got a huge VFW Hall to donate the space for us all to play. The VFW hall donated 100% of the cover charge and the profit from the bar...we raised thousands of dollars.

There were 6 bands in total...my band closed the show. Just before we went on stage, the Nam vets called me out to say thanks. They presented me with a “Chieu Hoi pass“ one of them had brought back from Nam and kept. In life, my kids and grandkids have made and/or given me stuff that no gift given to me by a human being could eclipse, in terms of how much it means to me. Honest to God, that Chieu Hoi pass means every bit as much to me as the stuff they’ve given me.

I thank y’all for every way in which you’ve served! To me, no one way is better to me than any other...but just know I will always have a special place in my heart for the Nam vets!

God bless all of you vets, thank you so much for your service.

22 years. Army Field Artillery.