Stories/ Memories
/Comments
From:
Dee Brister Deebrister@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001
Have just come across your site & love it. I was Medicine Man in 66
with the
128th. I went over with the 11th Avn Bn in Oct 65. I don’t recall just
when
I went to the 128th but before my tour was over I took over the
Maintenance
Detachment until I came home. John Casey came as I was leaving. Lot of
memories from Phu Loi.
Thanks for the effort of maintaining a web site.
Dee Brister
Medicine Man
From: Duke Robnett drobnett@cambertx.com
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 7:27 AM
I recently got back in touch with a lot of new and old warriors of the 128th
and also became a frequent visitor at the 128th Website. You had asked
for
comments in a 30 April 2000 article. Due to my travel schedule I have not
been able to respond until know. I share my comments with you and after
your perusal feel they are worthwhile then feel free to put them on the
128th Discussion Group Page.
Thanks for your continuing efforts.
Duke Robnett
LTC (Ret.)
Gunslinger 36
WEBMASTER NOTE: This is being posted on the Tomahawk comment page instead
of the web site Discussion Page - it is a worth while read. Sorry about the long
delay in posting this message from Duke.
You asked for some input relative to "feelings" reference end of
the war, would a person do it again, and what has happened to the vet after war’s
end. These are rather a difficult series of questions to answer. It is my
thought that all of us have a different perspective; particularly, if you served
one or more tours and had the firsthand opportunity to differentiate between
service to our country in the earliest parts of the war and as we began our
exit.
It wasn’t so much an end to the war as it was the fact that American’s
tired of giving her son’s to a seemingly endless conflict with no apparent end
in sight. Secondly, it finally became readily apparent that regardless of
America’s technological advances in warfare, North Vietnam would continue to
sacrifice her son’s regardless of cost to off set the differential. The pity
of it all was that America’s leaders ignored the outcome and parallels of the
French Indochina war, continued the war in Vietnam by proxy and finally direct
involvement, and elected to prop up a series of corrupt governments ruled by
self- aggrandizing politicians who paid lip service to bettering the lives of
the lower classes. The final outcome of the Vietnam War was finally decided in
the forum of political opinion when our national will to continue was undermined
by human and material costs, frustration at lack of success, and the North
Vietnamese adroit use of political methods.
I served for a very short period of time with the Tomahawks in early 1967 and
68. There probably wasn’t any part of the country that wasn’t a hotbed of
either VC or NVA activity. For those of us who volunteered for flight school we
knew full well at the time of our volunteering, that our tickets had been
punched all the way to Vietnam. Regardless, we were all American’s believing
strongly in our patriotic service to country and the cause for which we were
sent to fight – to preserve a democracy through defeat of a communist
aggressor. Just as our brethren of past wars we were sent to do a duty and we
did it - not always best, not always right, and not without some question in our
hearts related to the wisdom of our leaders, but it was always done.
My second tour of duty was in 1971 and 72 and the program of "Vietnamization"
was in full swing. It was, as President Kennedy said, "In the last
analysis, it is their war; it is they who must win or lose it." My
second tour was difficult to say the least. My whole outlook on the war and
America’s reason for being there did a drastic turnaround. I became more
embittered toward the ARVN and their leadership with each day served. It was
obvious during this tour of duty that South Vietnam no longer had the will to
pursue their political ambitions as a free and independent nation state without
America at their side.
The reason for this turnaround centered on the South Vietnamese Army and its
leadership. While the military advisory program had trained ARVN to fight it
could not instill a backbone in its leaders or individual soldiers. It became a
daily ordeal to provide support to the ARVN. They would, without American
support, rarely move outside their individual areas of sanctuary to mount
offensive operations against the Viet Cong and/or NVA regulars. If and when
mounted, at first contact, they would hunker down, establish a defense, and
absorb their losses rather than go on the offensive. In short order, it became
apparent to me that they had neither the will to fight or win and still
preferred to have American forces play point man if intelligence showed the
least potential for strong resistance by an Viet Cong or NVA force. Regardless
of my disdain, I once again, faithfully executed my military duties to the best
of my abilities and within the resources available to me, but I felt that each
American causality or death that occurred during my second tour was life and
limb given in support of a lost crusade.
Someone wrote - The American involvement in Indochina began imperceptibly,
almost like a toothache. Each President (Truman through Nixon) based his
policies on exaggerated fears and, later, on exaggerated hopes. One cannot help
but wonder what might have happened if not one single American soldier had ever
come to Indochina. History does not reveal its alternatives, and thus one cannot
say with certitude where this road not taken would have led.
There are more than 55, 000 American’s that would have liked the questions
surrounding that speculation answered. In my view, history shows it was hardly
worth the sacrifice of the fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers of those
whose names appear on a black granite wall in our Nations Capital not to mention
those that bravely gave the supreme sacrifice.
In reference to what happened to the veterans of the Vietnam war I think most
of us who served know the answer to that question. Over time the media has
played the Vietnam veteran as a "victim". To me that term has
engendered in the mind of an average citizen, a person who stands on some street
corner with a sign around his neck stating , "Homeless Vietnam Vet. Need
Food or Work. God Bless!." I don’t consider myself a "victim"
of that war nor do I see any others as "victims". What we are is a
by-product of God’s plan in our lives coupled with our own initiative, wills,
and intellect. I am not about to say there are not those who were disabled in
some way by their wartime experiences and were unable to recover or chose not to
recover from those experiences. However, those few are not representative of the
vast majority of America’s Vietnam Veterans. I am proud of my service to this
great country and proud to have served with many like me. We were ALL
SOLDIERS ONCE….AND YOUNG.
NEXT PAGE
BACK TO MENU PAGE
