Combat Medics going into firefights not to take lives but to save lives knowing full well that the enemy will be trying to kill them and the Soldier on the ground they are trying to save. Doctors and Nurses where the Soldiers are Medivaced to, all day every day for their Tour of Duty working in blood and gore on Men in agony and horrible pain, some they will save and give them joy and hope, some will die…As an ex Combat Soldier I do not know if I could take that every day, Thank God there are Brave Men and Women in the Medical Field who can.
As far as the Mission goes, you have no idea of how Proud we are of all of you and how Thankful we are to all of you. Winning the Hearts and Minds is tough when you invade a country like Viet Nam or Iraq or Afghanistan, totally different people and culture, expected to welcome us with open arms and accept our culture while the enemy is of their own people and is willing to kill them if they do not support them. Yet we did win Hearts and Minds in Nam and I am sure in Iraq and Afghanistan, I knew when we pulled out American Air Support and Artillery that it was just a matter of time in Nam before the government fell. It broke my heart in 1975 when Saigon fell and I saw thousands of Vietnamese trying to get through the gate and fence at the US Embassy and on the helicopters. And then the Boat People from Viet Nam and the treatment of the Vietnamese and Laotians and Cambodians we had left behind. Over 58000 Men gone, the real Heroes who never came home, if they could only have seen the fall of the Berlin Wall, the freedom of the former countries of the Soviet Union, the basic fall of Communism, our trade with China, sure we have problems in the US today, but those Men did not die in vain!
Our Men and Women in Uniform are our Finest Citizens and our most Idealistic Citizens of all,,,Soldiers fight for the most Noble of reasons and causes, unlike our Politicians and those who profit from wars…
Our most important job as Citizens of this Country is to be forever vigilant about our own government and their reasons for wanting war,,,to fail is to let down our Country’s most important asset, our Soldiers.
ROADWARRIOR,,,OEFVET,,,SPEMACK618 and all of our Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter what happens to those countries in the future, You went with the most Noble and Idealistic of Causes, America’s Security, and Freedom and a Better Life for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, YOU ARE ALL HEROES! Just like in Nam you never failed us, our Soldiers never do, I wish I could say the same for our Politicians and We the People back Home.