Category Archives: ‘Nam – Some Came Home

Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida: There is a long story behind this song. First of all – this was never my style of music – not even “growing up” in the late 60’s – but this one single song defined my time in-country. It was released within days of my arrival and I KNEW from the moment I heard it – exactly what it’s meaning was… In the Garden of Eden – but of course no one believed me. I guess that Brutha Smoove was too stoned along with Foxworthy and the rest of the guys. And Leonard – he was just swapping beer for ice… It took nearly 40 years for the truth to come out. Considered the first Heavy Metal song.

This was my war – this was YOUR war. Many of our brothers and sisters never made it home, but in spirit. Others made it home in body – but not right of mind. These are OUR stories.

I’ll see you all in the Garden someday..

Why Were Vietnam War Vets Treated Poorly When They Returned?

American soldiers returning home from Vietnam often faced scorn as the war they had fought in became increasingly unpopular.

I had gotten this article from “CherrieWriters”, It was one of the sites I get regular emails from. The site is full of information about Vietnam. I found the site years ago when I was researching the A-7 strikes near Hanoi if memory servers. This article means something to me because I remember the treatment my Dad got when he came home from his 2nd tour in Vietnam and it infuriated me, I was too young to really remember his first tour. How could the people blame the G.I’s for the war, they had to go when their government sent them. Going to Canada was a non-starter for most of the draftee’s, “only cowards and cocksuckers ran to Canada” was the prevailing theme. Then the way they were crapped on after they returned, from the people on the streets to the VA and the government. I recall the sentiment during Desert Storm that we were massively supported by the people on the street to Hollywood celebrities. It was almost surreal compared to the treatment my Dad and his generation got. I am glad that we as a society has matured, even during the unpopularity of the Iraq war most people didn’t blame the G.I. although there were a few asshats here and there. ~ Mr. Garabaldi

Twenty-one-year-old Steven A. Wowwk arrived as an infantryman in the Army’s First Cavalry Division in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam in early January 1969 to fight in an escalating and increasingly unwinnable war. By June, Wowwk had been wounded twice – the second time seriously – and was sent back to the United States for treatment at Boston’s Chelsea Naval Hospital.

It was after returning to the U.S. and while en route to the hospital that Wowwk first encountered hostility as a veteran. Continue reading

Class of 2020

Now hiring signs everywhere. My feelings get hurt because of your free speech, ban all guns, legalize drugs, single parenthood is cool. I deserve free everything.

Class of 1970. Boeing lays off 70,000 in Puget Sound, Gas doubled to 50 cents, no jobs, and your headed to Viet Nam.

The 1970s were a time of turmoil in the United States, beginning with the civil rights movement which set the standards for practices by the anti-war movement. The 1969 draft lottery only encouraged resentment of the Vietnam War and the draft. Continue reading

Jane Fonda: Judas Bitch!

The mere mention of her name will bring many to anger. There are first hand stories and pictures of her cavorting with the enemy.

What she did is Treason in its purest form. And yet because she came from Hollywood she gets preferential treatment.

One of the defining moments of anti American hypocrisy by the liberals in this country. She deserves the “honor” of a trial and the most severe punishment the law allows.

Barbara Walters writes:

Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War. Continue reading

Versace: A fighter in captivity, Viet Cong executed him out of frustration

Put up such a fight in captivity, Viet Cong executed him out of frustration. He was last heard singing “God Bless America”… later awarded the Medal of Honor

Captain Humbert Roque Versace (July 2, 1937 – September 26, 1965), affectionately called “Rocky,” was an officer of the United States Army.

He went on to receive the Medal of Honor – the greatest military decoration of the United States – for the heroic actions he undertook as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War. Puerto Rican-Italian by descent, he was the first member of the U.S. Army to have ever received such a distinction.

Born on July 2, 1937, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Versace was the eldest of five children. Versace’s father was Colonel Humbert Joseph Versace (1911–1972), and his mother was Marie Teresa Ríos (1917–1999) – who has authored three books, which includes the popular work Fifteenth Pelican, on which the 1960s Sally Field-starrer The Flying Nun was based. Having grown up in Alexandria, Virginia, Versace attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. during his freshman and sophomore years, Frankfurt American High School in his junior year, and after graduating from Norfolk Catholic High School in his senior year, enrolled in the Armed Forces from Norfolk in Virginia. Continue reading

Agent Orange: White House Delay Medical Benefits for Thousands of Veterans

U.S. Army Huey helicopter spraying Agent Orange over Vietnamese agricultural land.

During the Vietnam War, the United States military sprayed over twenty million gallons of herbicide Agent Orange on the trees and vegetation in Vietnam. The idea was to remove the forest cover that the enemy combatants were hiding behind and to destroy their crops, which would make it more difficult for them to feed themselves. Continue reading

600th Consecutive Sunday Rally – “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME

They Sacrificed Their Lives For All But Died Homeless

Editor’s NOTE: Back in my early days of broadcasting out of Scottsdale, AZ – I was privileged to interview the author on a number of occasions… and today (9/29/19) marks 601 consecutive Rallies – and many never made it home. ~ Ed.

Steve Palmer, 88-year old World War II Veteran of the U.S. Navy

Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans,
The Old Veterans Guard cordially invites you to attend our 600th consecutive Sunday Rally to “Save Our Veterans Land” and “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME.”

While our Sunday gathering is a peaceful and non-violent protest against the Los Angeles VA’s illegal use of Veterans land and the inhumane treatment of war-injured homeless Veterans, the most corrupt VA in the nation has been anything but civil, honest, peaceful and non-violent. Continue reading

Cancer-stricken Vietnam vet left to die in VA nursing home

Joel Marrable was swollen with red bumps all over his body at the nursing home in Atlanta last week

Joel MarrableA Georgia woman says her father was bitten more than 100 times by ants at a government veterans’ home where his room was full of insects after staff allowed him to be attacked by them on more than one occasion.

Laquna Ross found her father Joel Marrable with dozens of swollen, red bumps all over his body when she visited him at the nursing home near Atlanta last week.

The Air Force veteran was dying of cancer during his stay at the DeKalb County campus but she was horrified when she saw his uncomfortable living condition.

‘His room had ants, the ceiling, the walls, the beds,’ Ross told WSB-TV. ‘They were everywhere.’ Continue reading

Can ya dig it?

If you dislike this funkyass song, then you a Jive Turkey

VIETNAM was on the horizon . . . I remember basic training at Fort Jackson, SC. Our guys standing in front of sinks about 10 or 12 across, all with towels wrapped around our waists… shave creme on our faces . . . razors in hand . . . . . All of us “brothers” . . . Black, White, Brown, Yellow…..listening to this and dancing…side step right….side step left . . . dip . . . spin . . . Would have made a helluva scene in a war movie . . . ~ Jim Walburn, You Tube Continue reading

Vietnam: a U.S. Tragedy

Editor’s NOTE: The past is prologue. The stories we tell about ourselves and our forebears inform the sort of country we think we are and help determine public policy. As our current president promises to “make America great again,” this moment is an appropriate time to reconsider our past, look back at various eras of United States history and re-evaluate America’s origins. When, exactly, were we “great”? ~ Editor, TruthDig

U.S. Marines move against the enemy in Vietnam in 1968. (U.S. Marine Corps)

It is the war that never dies. Vietnam, the very word shrouded with extraordinary meaning in the American lexicon. For some it represents failure; for others guilt; for still more, anger that the war could have and should have been won. Americans are still arguing about this war, once the nation’s longest. For those who lived through it—the last war the U.S. fought partly with draftees—it was almost impossible not to take sides; to be pro-war or anti-war became a social and political identity unto itself. This tribal split even reached into the ranks of military veterans, as some joined antiwar movements and others remained vociferously sure that the war needed to be fought through to victory. Indeed, today, even the active-duty U.S. military officer corps is rent over assessment of the Vietnam legacy. Continue reading

John McCain and the POW Cover-Up

Are you LISTENING Meghan? Your father was no ‘hero’ nor a ‘great man.

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam. ~ May 25, 2010

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the ‘war hero‘ who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books. Continue reading

The True Meaning Behind Vietnam Veterans Day, March 29

Vietnam Veterans Day

March 29th, the nation will quietly celebrate National Vietnam Veterans Day, but most of the nation may not even know that fact. After all, it is a new idea and it is not one of the big national holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans Day with a three-day weekend attached to it.

We Vietnam veterans are honored that such a day has been set aside. Though it may go unnoticed by most, that makes little difference to we who served in Vietnam. We know who we are. We remember only too well those we served with and those who did not come home with us.

We are proud of our service and of our brotherhood. Continue reading

The Nam: Some say why, we knew why brothers and sisters!

This young lady wrote this response to all Vietnam Veterans, about this picture.

Is this pic of the Tet Offensive in Central VN, specifically Quang Tri Dong Ha? It look familiar bc i was there . I was 4, 5 at the time. I remembered my mom n auntie made lots of New Tear foods, and brought it out so that the soldiers can eat n fight. Our home was at the entrance into the city. Continue reading

The Final Dig! Was John McCain a Traitor?

Special Message to Meghan McCain… “SHUT UP!”

~ Foreword ~
UPDATE: August 24, 2018 ~ It was announced today by Senator  ‘Songbird’ that he is no longer being treated for his brain-cancer, as he realizes that his time is up. Have a better journey McCain than you provided for others, for It can not be soon enough that your final “dig” will take place – and you will be placed underground, which will bring you closer to your Father – Satan!.

The following was recently discovered on the blog of a colleague. As an Arizona resident for forty-two years – I have had no use for him. As a Viet Nam veteran – I have had even less use for the continued lies and deceit of John McCain.  This column deserves the modified title of, “The Final Dig.”  McCain died the day after this forward post. ~ J.B.

Americans left behind in Vietnam

Having recently accused president Trump of “treason,” the biggest traitor in Washington D.C. might be none other than Senator John McCain.

Disturbing information continues to emerge about his direct ties to Muslim terrorists and the London bomber, and how he’s owned and funded by Saudi terrorists and George Soros.

Ever since Trump got into office, McCain has done everything in his power to subvert the President of the United States, which is a federal crime.

As McCain continues to garner the sympathy of many Americans who still falsely believe he’s a Vietnam “war hero,” it’s time that we finally set the record straight about the unbelievable things McCain did during his time in the military, before McCain dies and nauseating tributes are made about his “service” in Vietnam. Continue reading

Command Sergeant Major Bennie G. Adkins

…ADKINS KILLED BETWEEN 135 & 175 OF THE ENEMY WHILE SUSTAINING 18 DIFFERENT WOUNDS…

Saluting United States Army of Waurika, Oklahoma, aged 85, awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat with communist enemy beginning 53 years ago – March 9 – 12, 1966, in the Republic of Vietnam.

“When the camp was attacked by a large North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in the early morning hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense enemy fire and manned a mortar position continually adjusting fire for the camp, despite incurring wounds as the mortar pit received several direct hits from enemy mortars. Continue reading

A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today

Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson speaks with reporters at the Pentagon on Dec. 4, 1969, after testifying about the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. (Associated Press)

Everybody’s heard of the My Lai massacre — March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today — but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (that’s the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). They were going to kill more, but they didn’t — because of what Thompson did. Continue reading