Thread: Vietnam Vets, sign in please.

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I too have a number of family members who have served in the Army, AF, Marines, Navy...
2 uncles who served 32 and 12 years respectively, I served 6, and i have an elder brother who served 26.US ARMY; I have 2 nephews who served 4 and 6 years respectively, and yet another 2 who have served 4 years and IS servicing in his 2cnd year of his 2cnd 6 year enlistment..US Marines.
I have a female 1st cousin who is an AF Helcopter Pilot and is curreently in the 21st year of her carreer., and a 1st cousin, David, our only NAVY or swabbie candidate who is in the 17th year of his naval career as a propulsion engineer aboard a Naval Fast Attck Sub.....
In all i have family members who have served in some capacity in combat and peacetime since 1949 when my Father's elder brother Joined the US army and became an MP, incidentally, 1949 is my birth year, 09/11/49, so in essence ALL MY life.... even those of my family who never served nor have any intention of ever serving, have always seemed to b beaming proud of ALL our family members, 1st to present who have and do serve.
Not to put a racial tint upon the thread, but a note.... im from a middle class black midwestern family, born in St. Louis, Mo, my Father's only child in. All the stories black baby boomers have generally, in cities like St. Louis,... are of poverty conditions, Slum and or projects hand me down, welfare, rats roaches, gang etc... AND abject, violent, insane racism. I have experience only of the latter. At age 14 in 1963, i watched and listened to the '' I have a dream speech " in the capitol, live and in person, i was in my 5th period 7th grade class later that year when i heard the news of JFK, and i wepted openly on both occassions. Later, a Milwaukee NAACP Commando after the death of Dr. King, i spent a week of the summer of 68 at the 2cnd " Poor Peoples Campaign "... I have spoken with, and or seen live and in person folk such as Dr. King, Stokely Carmichel, H. Rap Brown even a brief distant glimpse of Malcom X before his death...ALL these folk i followed, loved and revered them, agreed with some points they all made and disagreed with others.... BUT...My attitude has always been...whatever else i am, i am 1st AMERICAN, my family on both my mother and fathers side have been in this nation since before it was one in the 1700's... I ain't African American, im AN American of African decent, IM not a Black American, im an AMERICAN Black. ALL 1st cousins, as much as possible, all through my family, as much as possible, have been raised as brothers and sisters, in MY generation thats 43 of us, 29 of whom yet live.
As we were RAISED( children in OUR family were never allowed to GROW UP, our folk insisted that WE BE "RAISED" which isn't nearly the same thing). 1) YOU CAN'T GO WRONG DOING RIGHT..2) YOU CAN"T GET RIGHT DOING WRONG...3) When it is YOUR family, even when they are wrong, they are right before all others while anyone else is against them, after all, there's more folks outside your family than in, Why help THEM?...Like it or not, for better or worse. sink or swim... AMERICA is a FAMILY.
My generation, including myself esperienced the Marches, beatings, lynchings, white/colored drinking fountains, back door service, can't afford to buy from where u work, Still, after all that..on December 4 68 i enlisted in the US Army, spent X-Mas 68 in BOOT CAMP, spent X-Mas of 69 as well as my B-Day sick in Nam.... not because i wasn't scare....not because i didn't have VAST differences with MANY thing that went on in my nation, much of which adversely affected me simply becaue of the color of my skin, including the reasoning i felt we were in NAM For and How we handled it...still, it NEVER made sense to me to put ur life and blood on the line to fight for rights in a nation which ur unwilling to put same on the line to defend to the death against all enemies for whatever reason ur nation might choose.....I was willing to DIE for my rights in AMERICA because i was willing to DIE for AMERICA, not the other way around.......I know some Black Folk, with good reason, had it twisted, including Muhamed Ali whom i worship and revered till this very day since i 1st heard of him... For me, no matter what contention i may ever have with my nation, it ends when someone comes AGAINST her... actually, im somewhat of a seperatist when it comes to America, i don't care if anyone else likes us or what we do or not, ain't any of em even got to come here, and anyone who has THAT much issue with us can kindly LEAVE, even Americans, LIKE McVay, hell, i'll help pay ur way... in SPITE OF ALL, the RED WHITE AND BLUE is STILL what i love....That Represents MY Family