Hand Salute! @buflosab. I didn't make it to Viet Nam (Coast Guard stopped sending new people over there before I got out of boot camp in 1972.) When asked if I'm a Viet Nam Vet, I say no, "I'm from that era but didn't serve over there." For the record, the Coast Guard ran river and coastal patrols over there. The only Coast Guard fatalities were courtesy of the U.S. Air Force which couldn't see the U.S. flag that one of our patrol boats was flying.
Thank you one and all for posting comments. My original reason for posting was to let any Vietnam veterans of this now yearly commemoration , National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29. This was the 1 year anniversary. It's not well known as of yet. Being a member of Vietnam Veterans Of America and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund,I of course recieve updates on these kind of events. My hope is that I didn't come off as tooting my own horn about my service. As for the veterans that served elsewhere, I make no distinction between were I served and were you served, we are all veterans, my thanks and admiration to all of you. Thank you again.
@buflosab thanks for your service and to all the other Vietnam vets. My time in the Air Force was later and I always felt Vietnam Vets didn't get the appreciation they deserved. Glad that is finally changing. I too offer a Hand Salute with @PappyJoe.
I went in in 1972, but the USCG (despite rumors that spread like wildfire during the last weeks of boot camp) was not sending more patrol boats to Vietnam. My first station was on isolated duty on the Columbia River Lightship. Several of my cousins though, did deploy over there.
To all of the Vietnam service members, thank you for your service. Although some of us have an idea of what it was like, none of us can ever truly know what it was like since we were not actually there.
My USMC enlistment was in 1979 so I missed that war but my D.I.s were all Vietnam grunts so they made it a point to train us on how to survive V.C. capture as they truly believed we were going back.
So thank you all for your sacrifices and everything you did for the USA. Semper Fi to my Marine brothers!
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My USMC enlistment was in 1979 so I missed that war but my D.I.s were all Vietnam grunts so they made it a point to train us on how to survive V.C. capture as they truly believed we were going back.
So thank you all for your sacrifices and everything you did for the USA. Semper Fi to my Marine brothers!
https://www.facebook.com/145th-Army-Band-129761400381985/