What Price What Value Service

Posted here and at The Borg Perspective by guest blogger Locutisprime.

I am a Vietnam veteran. An old corps oddity it now seems. I remember when I was a boy and the reverence that was visited upon the WWI veterans back then. Then came my father's era. He was a WWII veteran of combat in the south pacific. Now most of them are also gone. Only a few stragglers left to carry forth their flag into the present.

They are all mostly in their 80's now and dying by the hundreds everyday. More the better probably. More the better that they don't continue to live to see the aberrations that they never dreamed would be visited upon their beloved nation.

Which means that the mission of memory and the remembering of those who served now falls to my generation. A generation that was bastardized and forgotten during the years of their youth in the 1960's. We were dismissed and diminished while still in the flower of our youth and mired in the service of this nation. Veterans like myself? We were led to believe that ours was neither a noble or note worthy sacrifice or cause and that it was a memory best shunned and left in the shadows of darkness. Something best left neglected and forgotten.

Certainly nothing to be compared to the accomplishments of the greatest generation and the repelling of the Japanese hoards or the turning back of the Nazi fanatical crusade.

Our war was something that just fell out of step with the recollections of reverence or honored service. Not even the Korean veterans were treated to the ambiguity of indifference that was visited upon those of us who served in Vietnam. And so now comes full circle the reality of our sins of youth and the tragedy of our having loved and believed in our country.

Today we are once again weighed and measured and shown to come up wanting and lacking of the approved substance and value of our predecessors. Oh? We gave just as much and bled just as sincerely and left our brothers marked by the rows and rows of white crosses just like all those who passed in uniform before us. But now it was different. Now was the time for more than mere reflection or recompense or heart felt thanks or gratitude for services rendered. Guilt had to be assigned and it was.

And it is time to once again weigh and measure those purposely forgotten by fetid history and once again assign them the diminished value to that which was lost and that which was spent in their wasted service to this nation. And once again we and all those who served with them or supported them come up short.

Once again we are left wanting in the eyes of our countrymen.  Once again we are left to wonder what it was that we did wrong and what it was that we could have done better. What was it that evaded us then and continues to elude us now. What price our honor and sacrifice? Will there ever be any acknowledgment at all for the lost generation that wonders why they were never equally loved ?

President Obama has voiced his opinion on American veterans this week. His true colors are showing through the facade and the mask that he put on last year during the campaign. I remember it well. I was a member of a group of past and present veterans back then. I remember watching and reading all the commentaries of supposed veteran patriots and their supporters who reveled at the thoughts of an Obama presidency. I read what they said while they trumped this man's shallow credentials and played up how much more he supposedly cared and how much more he supposedly meant to veterans and how much more he would supposedly do for them once he was president.

Well now he is president. And the first thing that he wants to do concerning veterans? Is turn his back on them and tell them up front that they need to look after themselves as it concerns their war related maladies. Let their insurance pay for it if they have it. Forget the age old premise of "service connected" becasue in the eyes of Barack Obama, there is no debt of payment owing to those who served. Debts of service obviously means little of nothing to a man that feels absolutely no connection to the military or those who serve or have served this country. The social baton has been passed to the future now it would appear.

Those that came after my generation have been raised and nurtured on the belief that there is nothing honorable in serving this country and certainly nothing owed. And consequently? There are no debts owed of honor or otherwise to those foolish enough to have worn her uniforms and sacrificed their lives in her service.

So beware my faithful servants in the uniforms of the present. The enemies of this nation not only inhabit foreign shores, but they are here too amongst us. They always have been. They were here in my youth and they remain now and they have raised up a following generation to continue their ire and hatred of you and I. And they seek to see all that are associated with the preservation of this country destroyed and cast asunder beneath the rainbow flags of one world government socialism.

They came for my generation and they continue to march toward that goal, but they are also coming for yours. All of you, present and future. All of you who feel that you have thus far escaped their wrath? Take heed, you haven't escaped their hatred. They despise you and everything that you represent. And when they cannot attack you opening and with force of numbers and the support of media? They will come after you via the insidious paths used to destroy that which sustains you. They will come after your faith, your honor, your family and your traditions. And they will not only attempt to steal your honor, but they will attempt to steal your earned rights of care that you bled the fields red earning.

For you see.....there is a difference between earning something and qualifying for it in their eyes. And you as veterans of this nations wars and conflicts have neither earned nor qualified for anything aside from the disdain in the eyes of the present socialist company that continues to despise you.

Comments

[renee]

I'm sorry and I see the unfairness and I don't understand why either. I am ashamed of the leadership of that time and how our service men and women were treated. I do understand the why of Obama.

From my view, he doesn't respect our veterans, he doesn't respect those in service, he doesn't respect Americans or America. He is about himself and his idea to change America. He sat in a church for 20 years listening and worshipping with America haters, had parents that hated America and friends who hated America, admired professors that hated America, his education was most likely funded by people that hate America. Evidence points, or lack thereof, that he is probably not a natural born citizen.

I'm trying with everything I have available to shout at our leadership so I don't have to be ashamed of them again, or of myself for not standing up to them. I was up until 4am last night typing two sets of letters to our leadership...and I will do it everyday for the next four years if necessary.

[chuck aka xtnyoda]

Sir, Locutisprime,

Well said, Sir.

For a despised generation that refuses to surrender... well said... Sir.

Might I simply say that this should prove to be the Achilles heel for this administration.

Semper Fi!

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

Excellent 'Prime, just outstanding.

[jodetoad]

I am probably a couple years younger than you, I was a teeneager during most of Viet Nam. At that time, the liberal anti-war stuff was in style, fashionable, there was a lot of social pressure on young people to go with the crowd.

I outgrew that, but it seems lots of us never grew up. I am ashamed of my 'baby-boomer' generation, ashamed of the President, and frankly, ashamed of what it seems our country is becoming.

But there are many of us who do appreciate, and are very thankful for your sacrifices and service.

[Bill Lewis]

Keep telling the citizens of this country the truth. All of them need to read what you have written and accept the truth you have conveyed. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill Lewis
U. S. A. F. 1968-1973