Reply to MORTARDUDE's excellent entry into the Forum:
After reading MORTARDUDE's excellent entry, I just had to reply and give my own input.
First MORTARDUDE stated that less then 2000 Vietnam Veterans are still on Active Duty at this time. That is probably a very close estimate. However shortly after September 11, 2001 many Reserve Units were called back to Active Military Duty in support of Homeland Defense. Some of those units were deployed to the Middle East and even saw action during the Afghanistan Campaign to destroy Suma Bin Ladden and his cutthroats. Many Vietnam Veterans were among that number as they had chosen to keep a limited Military affiliation by serving in a Guard or Reserve Unit.
I was one of those Reservists and was activated on October 2001. I served one year of Active Duty and was then released on October 2002. I was not the only Vietnam Veteran in my unit, as there were five others also. All served the one year, and two of that number volunteered to remain on Active Duty for an additional year. This figure only represents my Reserve Unit, however many Reserve and Guard Units were Activated. Each of those other Reserve and Guard Units must also have contained a few Vietnam Veterans in their ranks also. If all Reserve and Guard Units were not included in compiling the 2000 estimate given by MORTARDUDE, I am sure that the total number of Active Duty Vietnam Veterans would be much higher.
MORTARDUDE also stated that the crop of Hollywood Movies portraying the Vietnam War, and the guys that fought in Vietnam, were a very poor example of of the Average Vietnam Veteran. I agree entirely. I have forced myself to watch most of them and have found myself disgusted at the way all Vietnam Veterans have been depicted.
However there was one Hollywood Movie that did make an honest attempt to show the Vietnam War, and the guys that fought it, in an accurate context. That movie was "WE WERE SOLDIERS" which Stared Mel Gibson. Finally someone decided to make a movie about the Vietnam War which portrayed the average Vietnam Veteran in a most favorable light. It also showed how Vietnam effected every single Veteran who ever served there from the very early sixties until the fall of Saigon in 1975. Hopefully Hollywood will continue to turn out more accurate films about the horror of Vietnam in the future.
I hope that none of my Vietnam Veteran Brothers and Sisters will take offense to anything I have written here. I am only attempting to add further information to MORTARDUDE's already excellent entry.
To all my Vietnam Veteran Brothers and Sisters I again state:
WELCOME HOME:
VIETNAM 1968
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