"It Don't Mean Nothin"

[Raggedy Ann]

I've heard this term used before on this site and did some searching to find the appropriate words to go with the title.

Raggedy Ann




?IT DON?T MEAN NOTHIN?
?IT DOESNT MEAN A THING?

It don?t mean nothin,
It doesn?t mean a thing.

When I heard these phrases,
they made me want to scream.

These words were said to calm a friend,
his Buddy won?t be coming back again.

To a person?s Buddy, when he was told,
his friend had died while on Patrol.

A sense of rage comes down on them,
they can?t understand why they lost their friend.

The stages that they all go through,
are sad as Hell to help them do.

Tears roll down their saddened cheeks,
their sorrow is felt and hard to speak.

First there?s confusion, then comes rage,
as the tears roll down their saddened face.

The words that you tell them just don?t help,
these were the cards and the hand that was dealt.

Your friend is dead, he?s now with God,
he is finally going Home.

I wish I could give you more comforting words,
but these are all I know.

It takes some time, but you?ll move on,
knowing that your friend isn?t there, and gone.

It?s thoughts like this that eat the brain,
and always in memory it will remain.

In Nam we had a saying,
when things didn?t go so well.

We?ve all been through it and seen it all,
And we all admit it was Hell.

Now that this Poem is reaching the End,
I have one more thing to say.

?IT DON?T MEAN NOTHIN?
?IT DOESN?T MEAN A THING?

But let me tell you brother,
life means everything.

CPL Doug Maier 7/14/01

[Robert Ryan]

We said that so we could keep movin on and not let the pain stop us. The easy way out was "don't mean nothin" we didn't have time to deal with the loss so we just said that. Inside we were torn apart but wouldn't le the pain in or out, so it "didn't mean nothin" then after I started dealing with PTSD and was able to work through my greif it surely did mean something. And with the help of the traveling wall I was able to let Gary go rest in peace. And I finally was able to grive the loss of my buddy.

[frisco-kid]

DON'T MEAN NOTHIN'


But of course, it did. This was a phrase used to shrug off things that DID mean somethin', or to at least minimize them, or to defuse them. To bring things into perspective. A buffer. It was a universal phrase used in every unit, mostly by grunts. I don't know how or when it started, but it was in use in the 101st when I got there in JUN66.

17OCT66, somewhere around Tuy Hoa. SP/4 Horton S. Coker was on my left, at about 10 o'clock, as we made our way towards the treeline. A couple of gunships had shown up, lighting up Charlie, but we were still taking some small arms fire. I saw him go down about 20yds. from me. I heard that dull splat sound as the round hit him and I just knew he was dead, laying there in the elephant grass. The tracers from the gunship had set the grass on fire and it was spreading to where he was laying. All I remember thinking was that I didn't want his mother to see him all burned up, so I went after him. I ran in a crouch through the grass and found him. He had been shot once through the heart and he looked peaceful as hell. I grabbed him by the shirt collar and started running like hell, dragging him clear of the fire.

DON'T MEAN NOTHIN'.

[Bill Farnie]

It was still being said when I arrived in country Sept. 68'


We were in a short but fierce firefight and took an NVA Major prisoner ( at least he was wearing a Maj.'s uniform ).
There was a LZ nearby so a chopper was called to come get the POW. We setup a defensive perimeter while Willie guided in the helicopter. The POW was picked up and the chopper had just cleared the treetops when the LZ erupted with an explosion and we started getting SA fire. The NVA had command detonated a 250 LB. bomb they had buried under the LZ. There was nothing left of Willie except a piece of his boot.

Don't mean nothin'

[DMZ-LT]

Don't even want to go here. Don't mean nothing. Knew I wasn't going to live to be 24 and hear I am an Opa and almost 60. I'll never forget

[Robert Ryan]

Hell I was on an incountry R&R when Gary was killed in an Ambush died from fragmentatiion wounds. When I got back I found he was killed. But since I didn't see it happen I decided that it didn't and just kept it that way for over 30 years until I finally faced the truth when the Traveling wall came to Sacramento. Saw guys get hit by our own fire and enemy fire, just a total fucked up situation. Saw the same things we all saw, dead GI's dead VC, dead NVA, and Vietnamese Civilans whe were caught between both. Eventually you had to get to the point where it "don't mean nothin".