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The Wall
rudiored
Member Posts: 94 ✭✭
will be in Oregon over the Memsorial Day weekend I believe....I got to go to Washington DC and it was amazing.......Lots of feelings....It was interesting to see a display of things that had been left at The Wall in the Smithsonian....I got to pay tribute to a couple comrades and soak it all in....Lots of Vets there......am going to try and make it down to Portland and see it this weekend.....
Comments
Standing, Staring, Looking At the Wall
By C.G. Woodard
At dawns first light he sees it, standing cold and dark and wet,
Half hidden by the ghost like fog, the crowd hasn't got here yet.
He hears it has the power, to take away his pain,
He's come to see and take a chance, he has everything to gain.
He reaches out to touch it, afraid of what he'll feel.
Chokes back his fears, holds back his tears and swears he will not flee.
Standin', starin', lookin' at the wall,
He hasn't seen their faces, since the night they gave their all,
He's waited thirty years, to answer to their call,
And now he's standin', starin', lookin' at the wall.
He reaches for the wall once more, one look and then he'll go,
Haunting eyes stare back at him, still empty, filled with woe.
The scars upon his body are not the ones he feels,
His mind is where his trouble lies; he's here to get it healed.
He starts his search upon the wall, new guilt with every name,
So many names are listed, this once great nations shame.
Their names are like a roll call list, etched in that cold black stone,
He should be listed with them, but he's standing here alone,
As he re-lives the battle, a chill runs through his bones,
He remembers now how each one looked and knows he's not alone,
He seeks in its reflection, an answer to their call,
It's their eyes staring at him now, forgiving from the wall.
Standin', starin', lookin' from the wall,
He hasn't seen their faces, since the night they gave it all,
They waited thirty years, for him to answer to their call,
Now their standin', starin', lookin' from the wall.
Semper Fi
Thanks Smoky
Clouder..
The Wall, a monument that moves me to tears, was NOT built to honor the VN vets, it's there to help the liberals live with themselves, God damn their miserable souls and their children like them.
Clouder..
Well, I'll be darned; we agree on something.
The next thing I know you'll tell me you agree with me that Jane Fonda should be tied up in a pig skin and airdropped from 10,000 feet into Al Anbar Province, Iraq--without a parachute.
Too little, too late; a sorry afterthought that fills me with disgust.
While I understand and agree with every word of that statement, the fact of how it moved me to read the names of family and friends on the wall at The Mall changed my personal view. To see them again on the traveling wall once again touched me deeply. I have to put away my anger when I remember those who were a part of my life at a very difficult time. Otherwise, it takes something away from their memory and my loss of their friendship.
I'll let God judge the those who I could not.
quote:Originally posted by DancesWithSheep
Too little, too late; a sorry afterthought that fills me with disgust.
While I understand and agree with every word of that statement, the fact of how it moved me to read the names of family and friends on the wall at The Mall changed my personal view. To see them again on the traveling wall once again touched me deeply. I have to put away my anger when I remember those who were a part of my life at a very difficult time. Otherwise, it takes something away from their memory and my loss of their friendship.
I'll let God judge the those who I could not.
I too would agree that it is more for political correctness than a memorial to the fallen, however, I have to take what good I can from it, rather than the bad. Regardless of the true reasoning behind it, the fact still remains that it represents a great deal to those of us that have friend and comrads in arm listed there. Do we simpley dismiss it as a political ploy of those who seeks to hide their own guilt, or do we garner what we can and charish the memory of those we know as well as those we don't. They are all, each and every one, our brothers.
I too would agree that it is more for political correctness than a memorial to the fallen, however, I have to take what good I can from it, rather than the bad. Regardless of the true reasoning behind it, the fact still remains that it represents a great deal to those of us that have friend and comrads in arm listed there. Do we simpley dismiss it as a political ploy of those who seeks to hide their own guilt, or do we garner what we can and charish the memory of those we know as well as those we don't. They are all, each and every one, our brothers.
I'm afraid belated provision of a memorial comprising a wall listing 58,000 all but otherwise anonymous names is pale recompense, even to those for whom the names have any real significance. To me it is a sad roll call of the betrayed and forgotten who had to wait until disco died down before receiving a modicum of recognition. If The Wall is to you a source of solace and means to preserve memory, then so be it; to me it is tantamount to a farmer piping music into the barn so his cows will give more milk. I don't need no f'in wall to remember those I left behind, and nothing this country can possibly do will ever lessen the disgust I feel. And do not think for a moment I do not know that all the fuss and fawning over the troops today is backlash on the part of the same people who scorned us now having sons and daughters of their own in uniform whom they do not want treated the way they treated us. And to them in particular, I give a big F U.
quote:Originally posted by alaska 207
I too would agree that it is more for political correctness than a memorial to the fallen, however, I have to take what good I can from it, rather than the bad. Regardless of the true reasoning behind it, the fact still remains that it represents a great deal to those of us that have friend and comrads in arm listed there. Do we simpley dismiss it as a political ploy of those who seeks to hide their own guilt, or do we garner what we can and charish the memory of those we know as well as those we don't. They are all, each and every one, our brothers.
I'm afraid belated provision of a memorial comprising a wall listing 58,000 all but otherwise anonymous names is pale recompense, even to those for whom the names have any real significance. To me it is a sad roll call of the betrayed and forgotten who had to wait until disco died down before receiving a modicum of recognition. If The Wall is to you a source of solace and means to preserve memory, then so be it; to me it is tantamount to a farmer piping music into the barn so his cows will give more milk. I don't need no f'in wall to remember those I left behind, and nothing this country can possibly do will ever lessen the disgust I feel. And do not think for a moment I do not know that all the fuss and fawning over the troops today is backlash on the part of the same people who scorned us now having sons and daughters of their own in uniform whom they do not want treated the way they treated us. And to them in particular, I give a big F U.
I'll direct this post to Dances with Sheep, but please know that I immediatley and completely acknowledge and accept the strong feelings that our veterens may have.
Born in 1962, Viet Nam was an aspect of my early life that wove its way into our daily life in rural NC. Every once in a while you would hear of one's cousin that wwas KIA there and you would stop a moment and thank the gentle Jesus that it wasn't you.
All through the 70s I struggled to get through school and my thoughts were turned more toward football and what girl's breasts were most accessible than the recognition of those that served over there.
I heard stories that my father told of WWII and he, every so often, he would lament the treatment of the soldiers, saying that people have absolutely no idea what it is like to be there.
All that means is that I have or had no basis of fact to form an opinion about the Viet Nam war. So I did what DWS said...I cried when they built the wall, and accepted the plattitudes that it covered. I went with friends to touch thier parent's names and I tried to grasp some notion of the feeling that those who served and came home must feel. It didn't work.
So now I get on gunbroker and I read the way Mr. Sheep talks about war and death and life in the shadow thereof. We know he is an amazing writer and can be as poignant as he wants to be or as scathing. I have enjoyed both.
Now I want his approbation along with those of you who feel like he does. I want you to accept my apology for not serving in the military and my apology for blithley stashing the atrocity of war in the corner of my maind labled "think about later". I cannot speak about the wall in terms other than that. At 43 I am raising sons and praying to God that they are good men....and praying that they are spared that horror...and praying that the people that can change things and move this world towards a realistic peace will.
Thank you all
Thomas Pittard
Oxford, NC
And do not think for a moment I do not know that all the fuss and fawning over the troops today is backlash on the part of the same people who scorned us now having sons and daughters of their own in uniform whom they do not want treated the way they treated us.
Truer words were never spoken. Funny how things in life turn, isn't it?
I'll direct this post to Dances with Sheep, but please know that I immediatley and completely acknowledge and accept the strong feelings that our veterens may have.
Born in 1962, Viet Nam was an aspect of my early life that wove its way into our daily life in rural NC. Every once in a while you would hear of one's cousin that wwas KIA there and you would stop a moment and thank the gentle Jesus that it wasn't you.
All through the 70s I struggled to get through school and my thoughts were turned more toward football and what girl's breasts were most accessible than the recognition of those that served over there.
I heard stories that my father told of WWII and he, every so often, he would lament the treatment of the soldiers, saying that people have absolutely no idea what it is like to be there.
All that means is that I have or had no basis of fact to form an opinion about the Viet Nam war. So I did what DWS said...I cried when they built the wall, and accepted the plattitudes that it covered. I went with friends to touch thier parent's names and I tried to grasp some notion of the feeling that those who served and came home must feel. It didn't work.
So now I get on gunbroker and I read the way Mr. Sheep talks about war and death and life in the shadow thereof. We know he is an amazing writer and can be as poignant as he wants to be or as scathing. I have enjoyed both.
Now I want his approbation along with those of you who feel like he does. I want you to accept my apology for not serving in the military and my apology for blithley stashing the atrocity of war in the corner of my maind labled "think about later". I cannot speak about the wall in terms other than that. At 43 I am raising sons and praying to God that they are good men....and praying that they are spared that horror...and praying that the people that can change things and move this world towards a realistic peace will.
You certainly owe no apology. Even if you did, which again you don't, the ones to whom any apology is owed are dust and long past caring. I am speaking only for myself here as a survivor. It is all well and good that a fat man my age should have the luxury of a living retrospective and the ability to still voice it, but it is my voice alone and I certainly do not speak for others, especially those who cannot speak for themselves; hopefully, they died believing in what they were doing. And I am sure that like you now, my father, and all the fathers of all those whose names are on The Wall, had the same desperate wish for their sons. I will say this: Had I had a son instead of a daughter, I would have broken both his arms and legs before allowing him to go into the Marine Corps.
I tried to visit the wall in DC... Just as I was passing the small row of tourist gift sheds, a group of Vietnamese tourist approached from another direction, and I could not tolerate the image.. just too much...
So, I am at peace. I am at peace with myself. I am at peace with the other citizens of America, regardless of their political bent.
And I am at peace with God.
As far as what my government owes me for what I did for my country, the Veterans Administration medical care that I receive is the fair keeping of their bargain. I am thankful for it.