'Nam music chiseled onto your soul

Just about anything by CCR or Crosby Stills & Nash. I hear a song and I'm back in 69-71, listening to AFRS or Radio Geronimo or one of the "pirate stations" broadcasting from the Med. We'd pick all this stuff up on short-wave radio.

All I have to do is hear that music, close my eyes and I can feel the heat and smell the dust and diesel fumes.

We were stationed at a "listening station" in Turkey. Everybody had a relative or friend serving in Nam and everyone feared that was their next duty.
 
Nathan said:
Music that played on Armed Forces Radio, or shortly after you got back to the World that affected you...

My time in Nam was '71~72, I'll go first:

Click to expand...
I have that in my playlist and enjoy hearing it occasionally. While a dinner with a family friend a while back he brought up NAM, and asked my when were you there. It kind of shocked him when I said oh, last night or was it this morning.
 
I remember a heated discussion with my bro and wife way back about the way in 'nam and why you were there. Some considered it was to stop that creeping threat of communism - as I did - my sil viewed the opposite and we screamed at each other - looks quite peaceful now out there?
 
911 said:
I heard this song play every time we turned the radio on. I remember the song was first released in the mid 60’s, but I was hearing it in the early 70’s and even after I got home.
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Yep, any time we had a little down time in some fire base, I'd hear this on someone's radio and nod my head.
On a different (well maybe not so different) note, that while I never got to an EM club, I found this cartoon humorous and at the same time a wee bit truthful I'd bet.


EM club.jpg
 
Nathan said:
Music that played on Armed Forces Radio, or shortly after you got back to the World that affected you...

My time in Nam was '71~72, I'll go first:

Click to expand...
My son was born in June of 1968. One day when he was about three he started singing that and he knew every word. I didn't even think I had the radio on that much.

As for me, I wasn't there but I thought it was like this all the time.
 
squatting dog said:
Yep, any time we had a little down time in some fire base, I'd hear this on someone's radio and nod my head.
On a different (well maybe not so different) note, that while I never got to an EM club, I found this cartoon humorous and at the same time a wee bit truthful I'd bet.


View attachment 346754
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We were sitting in a bar one night and as usual the same bunch of guys got drunk. When this song came on the jukebox, we heard it so many times that these guys sang it and knew every word because it was repeated almost every time the radio came on. They sang it so loud, we couldn’t hear the jukebox.
 
In 1967, in a bar just off campus at Ohio State, I used to hear this really sad song on the jukebox all the time.
The band had a blue grass sound. I haven't been able to find it since.

It went like this:

They sent him to Vietnam
His heart was young and gay.
It's hard for me to realize
they've sent him home this way.

His troubles are all over.
His work on earth is done.
His mother has a purple heart
in memory of her son.

It still gets to me. Anyone ever heard this?
 
Della said:
In 1967, in a bar just off campus at Ohio State, I used to hear this really sad song on the jukebox all the time.
The band had a blue grass sound. I haven't been able to find it since.

It went like this:

They sent him to Vietnam
His heart was young and gay.
It's hard for me to realize
they've sent him home this way.

His troubles are all over.
His work on earth is done.
His mother has a purple heart
in memory of her son.

It still gets to me. Anyone ever heard this?
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It sounds familiar, but I am not completely sure I have heard it.

I want to make a comment about receiving the PH. When I received mine, it was in Okinawa at the hospital. I had at that time delusions of a ceremony and so forth because they gave out maybe 3 or more that day, but that was a fantasy on my part. A Colonel stopped at my bed and handed me a box after opening and said “Congratulations, Son.” Shook my hand and see you later. I thought “What? No cake?” I didn’t expect him to pin it on my hospital gown, but maybe a minute or 2 of conversation would have been very nice.
 
Della said:
In 1967, in a bar just off campus at Ohio State, I used to hear this really sad song on the jukebox all the time.
The band had a blue grass sound. I haven't been able to find it since.

It went like this:

They sent him to Vietnam
His heart was young and gay.
It's hard for me to realize
they've sent him home this way.

His troubles are all over.
His work on earth is done.
His mother has a purple heart
in memory of her son.

It still gets to me. Anyone ever heard this?
Click to expand...
I never heard that poem but it reaches into my chest and squeezes my heart. My deceased husband fought in Vietnam. Sept 67' to May of 68. He was Ist Mar. Div/ 3rd BTN/ 7th Marines, Suicide Co. I was only 12yrs old at the time. We met late in life. (1994) and unfortunately we only had 13 yrs together until he died of War related injuries in 2007. He told me many a horror story about that senseless war. I wish I still had his company.
But , about the music of that time...Fortunate Son, Sky Pilot, The Unknown Soldier, Run Thru the Jungle, Gimme Shelter, and the ones you've mentioned already, are very much remembered. Great Music/ Lousy War. Thanks for asking.
 
"They sent him off to Vietnam, on his senior trip."

Love that song, @His Dudeness and "Good Morning Vietnam" is one of my favorite movies. The old man in the English class is my idol, "I would be very reticent."

911 said:
It sounds familiar, but I am not completely sure I have heard it.

I want to make a comment about receiving the PH. When I received mine, it was in Okinawa at the hospital. I had at that time delusions of a ceremony and so forth because they gave out maybe 3 or more that day, but that was a fantasy on my part. A Colonel stopped at my bed and handed me a box after opening and said “Congratulations, Son.” Shook my hand and see you later. I thought “What? No cake?” I didn’t expect him to pin it on my hospital gown, but maybe a minute or 2 of conversation would have been very nice.
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I am so sorry to read that. I would have expected something like the scene in, "Forrest Gump" where you and a few others would be congratulated by the president. I'd be proud to make you a cake myself.
 
Della said:
I would have expected something like the scene in, "Forrest Gump" where you and a few others would be congratulated by the president.
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Gump received the CMH (Congressional Medal of Honor) in the movie. The President usually does not award Purple Hearts. I can understand the confusion since Gump showed President Johnson where he was wounded.

 
I just spent a half hour in YouTube searching for my song and now I've got PTSD.
Wow. The videos are horrific. Horrible and awesome at the same time.
Here's an example:

Copperhead Road
 
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My husband hears songs that he heard while in Vietnam and just relates to them as when he was in Vietnam with those memories.
 

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