Rant #3,101: A Day of Remembrance

My worlds are colliding once again.

It does not happen too often, but with this blog entry, it will now have happened twice in the past two weeks.

And when I say “my worlds are colliding,” what I mean is that my world as a blog writer, and my world as an editor/writer covering the world of military stores, are kind of crossing over in today’s Rant.

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, a day where we remember those service members who served during the Vietnam War period.

That was one of this country’s most hated wars, a conflict that was taking place amidst a great upheaval in America and in the world at the time.

We, as a country, did not understand why we were in the middle of a war that we really shouldn’t have been in to begin with, and those men and women who served during this time were looked at as tools of our government.

When they came back to our country after their service—if they came back—there were no parades, no jubilant events to honor them; in fact, they were looked down upon, never getting the praise that they earned and deserved.

In recent years, the tide has turned.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day was first established by presidential proclamation in 2012 leading to the start of annual observance events in 2014.

The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 further established the events as a national observance to recognize Vietnam War-era veterans for their service.

The observance date recognizes March 29, 1973, the day the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, ceased operations with the last U.S. combat troops leaving the country.

So today, decades after that war ended, those who served during that period of time will get the honors that they should have received 50 years ago.

Sure, these are small tokens of gratitude—many of the stores that I cover will be giving our commemorative pins to those who qualify, and there will be ceremonies honoring these veterans at many bases—but it is way more than they received when they originally came home from war.

I remember those times vividly.

I knew a couple of older guys who simply did not want to be drafted, did not want to serve in the war, and they did anything and everything they could to get a deferment.

Growing up in Queens, New York, there was one guy in my building who broke his arm purposely—if I remember correctly, not once but at least twice—because he wanted it to appear as if he was not fit for battle.

I remember that our government had the draft lottery, and if you think the NBA and NFL drafts are big events, then you obviously weren’t around way back when.

The government picked the draft dates, and if your birthdate was picked out of the top 50 or so dates, you would almost certainly get drafted. Those on the lower portion didn’t have to worry as much, as their chance of getting drafted was much slimmer than those dates chosen early on.

Even though I was too young to be drafted, myself and my schoolmates looked at the dates, and when they were picked, related them to when we, ourselves, were born.

It was a big thing, and I remember that one year, one of my classmates was born on the first date picked, and he paraded around our school room as if he had won a cash lottery.

I mean, he wasn’t old enough to serve, but just think of those born on that date whose hearts went into their stomachs when their birthdate wound up being #1.

And I also remember one guy who did do his duty, served in Vietnam, came back home, and was stabbed to death in the middle of the night literally right outside my family’s apartment in the parking lot of our building.

He called out for his mother, everyone — including myself—heard his cries, and the next morning, we found that he had made it across the street from the parking lot, and we circled the blood-splattered portion of the sidewalk that he finally lost his life on.

We could do that because in those days, they did not wrap crime scenes in that yellow tape that borders such scenes like they do today.

I was too young to be drafted back then, but old enough to know what was going on in our country and our world.

And so when I turned 18 years of age, now on Long Island, I went to the general office of my high school to register for the draft, because I thought that that was the right thing to do.

I remember getting there, and someone telling me that I did not have to register … that the draft had recently been abolished earlier in the 1974-1975 time frame, so unlike guys who were slightly older than me, I didn’t have to worry about such things.

And thus, I owe a debt of gratitude to those slightly older than me who did their duty by registering, and who fought in a war that may have been unpopular, but they did their duty anyway.

To them, I salute them on their special day, and I salute service members and veterans every day for their service to this country.