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Give it a rest

joker19joker19 Member Posts: 110 ✭✭
edited December 2010 in US Military Veteran Forum
I walk through this site and it is like walking through a Hollywood scripted movie. Most of the posts here are absolute garbage and simply a made up adventure. I think the best thing is to abandon this site and let it die........give the real vets a place to rest and let the rest of the BS go away. I am willing to bet that 85% of the posts on this site are true BS. All of my time in VN are way differant than those that say they were there........death is a smell an sight that is not transferable to words.

DaNang VN
Khe Sahn VN
Dong Ha VN
Vandergriff VN
Citadel VN

Comments

  • dheffleydheffley Member Posts: 25,000
    edited November -1
    I understand your thoughts, and it is hard to extract fact from fiction on an internet website. I know most folks were just like me. I suffered from boredom 90% of the time. I was fearful in a fire fight, but I controlled it and survived. I distrusted the natives of the country both uniformed and civilian. I missed home at times, and had strange friendships forged out of the need to relate. I saw many things I'll never forget, some good, some I'll carry to my grave without discussing. I saw brave men and cowards, I saw good men and crooks. I was not a hero, just a grunt. It wasn't the moving battles of WWII, it was a poor excuse for a war and even worse as a police action, but it was what it was, and I'm glad I'm here today and hope never to see or experience those things again.

    I say all of that to say, if you're a fellow soldier, I'm glad you're here too. If not, I hope you know not everything you read on the internet or here is true, and VN was at times a group of people who wanted someone else to die for them so they could continue living as they pleased, and at times a group of people who would just as soon kill you as defend themselves. Not a good place or a good time.
  • prangleprangle Member Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Originally posted by joker19
    I walk through this site and it is like walking through a Hollywood scripted movie. Most of the posts here are absolute garbage and simply a made up adventure.
    .......................................................................
    So, you were a cook?
    We have a new wannabee. I'd like your BS to go away.
    If people lie, that's their problem.
    mvc006sx.jpg
  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You were at Khe Sanh sir?
  • cercer Member Posts: 826 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The people who were there know they were. the people who were not there know their B/S will catch up to them some day.
    it doesn't matter what people think of me, where i was and when.
    IT DON'T MEAN NOTHIN.
  • 11echo11echo Member Posts: 1,007 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think you maybe semi correct, but my time in the military I seem to remember the soldiers I was around passed out some "whoppers" just BSing to each other! I was NEVER in Viet Nam, but I'm listed as a Viet Nam era Vet (73-76), I was stationed in W. Germany and being in Armor you can probably guess why. I'd like to discuss my military experiences, but I don't see a Cold War forum (wonder WHY?) ...closest to it is this one. On occasions something is said or I have questions about and I comment or ask, but if you believe it or not is up to the reader. Where on the internet do you believe EVERYTHING you read or hear!??
  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,429 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bar-stool commandos are pitiful creatures. They don't fool anybody, but think they do. You can hardly drink a beer these days without discovering that the guy on one side of you was a SEAL and the guy on the other side was either a Ranger or an astronaut. It seldom takes more than three questions to ferret them out.
    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
  • 70-10170-101 Member Posts: 1,006
    edited November -1
    The thing about memories is the brain processes them in a different manner from person to person. This is especially true as we age.

    I still chat with several friends I served in VM with and we shared numerous experiences together, good and not so good. But our memories of these events are completely different.

    Go figure.
  • flapjackflapjack Member Posts: 58 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had one friend who started to require an individuals DD-214 before he would discuss anything RVN with them. Some of the folks that insist on "embelishing" their tours have reportedly ended up taking their own lives. But they were, as I understand it, actual Viet Nam Vets. Doing something like that would seem to super charge the survivers guilt that most of us already have. As one poster above stated, this stuff will come back on these folks that a friend of mine, who had 4 tours as a helicopter pilot, called "War Lords." That terminology has stayed with me over the years, and has also acted as a reminder to me a few times when I was heading in that direction. I'm no hero, but I've definitely known some, and most of them cringed at that lable being hung on them. As we get older, it is natural to remember things a little differently than they were, but that does
    not turn a clerk typist that served in the states into a tunnel rat that did 3 tours in the Nam, most of it underground. It is interesting how things change isn't it? When I got home in October of 1970, you had better not have been in Viet Nam-or any place close to it, if you wanted a job, a place to live, or even a date! Now time passes and we have actors and politicians and a whole host of other posers with a varied set of motives lying to themselves and every body else about being a Viet Nam Veteran. I must admit that when I meet a VN Vet that has had one of those incredible tours, and is vocal about it, I am more than a little reluctant to accept it right out of the shoot, so to speak. Most of the time this occurs at the VA hospital, but ocasionally I will run into a flamboyant vet who has most likely experienced everything he says he has. MANY OF THESE GUYS ARE SF OF SOME KIND, OR MARINES. One guy, Army SF, had escaped from a POW camp, carried another guy with him, etc etfc etc...I ran into him in a convenience store waiting to buy a sandwich. He looked at me, and I at him, and we both knew. I know most of you VN Vets have had this experience many times-we just know each other. Anyway, this guy had told Nixon to stick a MOH, and had a minituized copy of his DD-214. I guess he was tired of the funny looks from other vets! But, as a group, SF soldiers, and especially Marines, seem to have no hang ups about giving you an instant tour of there anatomy, pointing out bullet holes, shrapnel hits, and every thing else, along with dates, brief desciptions of the circumstances, and any award or decoration resulting from said action. That's cool with me, as long as it is real. What is definitely NOT COOL with me is the blow hard-real or not-that demeans another Viet Nam Veterans service-regardless of what it was. Say what you want about your own service, as long as it is true, but don't put some other vet down because his assignment wasn't like yours,whatever yours was. There are thousands of veterans that drove trucks, worked in logistics, or supply-whatever-that will never seek help for their stress related symtoms because "all they did was..." These fellow veterans of ours could be free of a lot of this stuff that has eaten on them for 40 years by just hearing one of us war lords tell them that what they did was apporeciated; that they did what they were told, and then regard them as a felloiw Vet. Everyone saw the war as an individual, and everyone is different. We were 1 1/2 miles up the road from some 5th Rangers, now, you want to talk about different...but these guys were great, but not everyone is going to do what these guys often considered fun. That dose not mean everyone who didn't spearhead into Cambodia with them in May 1970 is a turtle. To read some of this stuff on here it appears that everybody was somebodys turtle! We need to help and encourage each other! Not further fragment ourselves. Haven't we at last had enough of that? I came to the place where I almost hated my self for surviving. Day after day I thought about eating my gun, but a loving Savior, who, among other things, got me to the VA for some help, or I would not be writting this. My understanding of what goes on in the hearts and minds of vets was greatly enhanced during the 2 1/2 years I was in therapy. No, I'm not a hero, and I wasn't in anything that they are likely make a movie about, at least I hope not. You see, one of the things I learned real good is that it's not what you did, its what what you did-did to YOU. Flapjack Out.
  • joker19joker19 Member Posts: 110 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes, I was at Khe Sahn....I still have red clay in my lungs. I flew a UH1C gunship through Vandergrif and Ripcord to get there and was a PIC for the Lam Sahn 719 into Laos.....any other stupid questions faker????????????
  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    What has happened to you over the years sir?
  • MMOMEQ-55MMOMEQ-55 Member Posts: 13,134
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by joker19
    Yes, I was at Khe Sahn....I still have red clay in my lungs. I flew a UH1C gunship through Vandergrif and Ripcord to get there and was a PIC for the Lam Sahn 719 into Laos.....any other stupid questions faker????????????


    Why do you feel that you have to call people childish names and insults? With the way you are acting on here we think that you are the faker.

    We see you talk a good game but nothing you have said can't be found on any forum about VN. So unless you are ready to prove your service I would suggest that you back off from calling others out.
  • krawiechkrawiech Member Posts: 135 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    it seems a lot of people on this forum always have a derogoraty remark for someone if they dont agree with them on everything they say i say you dont have to be nasty to everyone im going to the va for help with my problems seems like a lot of other people need to go also to relieve some of their anger hank k
  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not all of us have fully returned from the Vietnam War. So the door to come home must be left open and "our forum chopper" must not leave without them. Though we risk taking the chance that some high-school student is fooling us with this subject. We're strong and must take the chance of being made foolish.

    All of us here were once Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen. The best that The USA had to offer at the time. But now we are old Marines, old Soldiers, old Sailors, and old Airmen. And war is best left to our young, new breed of American fighters. It's safe to leave war in their hands now because they're real good at it. As we once were.

    A passing helicopter will still make me stop what I'm doing so that I can to watch it's beauty and listen to it's sound till it's gone. And a car back-fire can still sometimes make me duck-down, and bring a laugh to the faces of my friends. They can laugh though, because I know they love me. They don't do it to shame me. They are not my enemies.

    And we are not, YOUR ENEMIES EITHER SIR. So come on home now. Join us while we wait with our new breed--for all of, their, American fighters to come home.
  • givettegivette Member Posts: 10,886
    edited November -1
    OP came in with a chip on his shoulder. Ready for a fight. "Were you in Khe Sanh, Sir" reads like there was admiration over being there. Not cause for you going on the defensive.

    Saying that the ratio of 85pct bogus vs. 15pct. true on this forum is really stretching things. Really.

    You see, over the years, I've read this forum. Read it yourself, and see for yourself.

    PS..you've had to have been there to be able to ferret out the phony posts from the legitimate. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and think the [numbers posted above] are because you havn't read this forum in depth. Best, Joe (Khe Sanh '67)
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