It don't mean nothin'

squatting dog

squatting dog

Remember when... thirty seemed so old.
Location
Arkansas, and also Florida
"'It don’t mean nothin’.” This phrase was repeated a million times during the Vietnam War. It definitely sounds like bad grammar. It was uttered by thousands of young soldiers described by the media as “rock and rollers with one foot already in the grave.” They were teenagers who used this phrase to cope with the pain, horror and futility of war.
Your buddy got killed, villages were burned to the ground, R&R cancelled, mother died and you couldn’t go home for her funeral. Those teenagers are now 60 to 70 years old. Don’t forget them; they are not ancient history.
Many of them thank you for honoring their service but feel that they really needed it 50 years ago. “It don’t mean nothin’.” It means everything."

don't mean nuthin'.jpg jungle crusher.jpg
 
Personally I always felt if a boy is too young to smoke and too young to go to a bar and drink...he's too young to be sent off to fight in a horrible war. Minds that young should not be exposed to the terrible things they saw and faced. And I keep reading that the Vietnam vets did not get the respect and support they deserve. That makes me sad and angry. I'm so grateful to you vets for your service.
 
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OneEyedDiva said:
Personally I always felt if a boy is too young to smoke and too young to go to a bar and drink...he's too young to be sent off to fight in a horrible war. Minds that young should not be exposed to the horrors they faced. And I keep reading that the Vietnam vets did not get the respect and support they deserve. That makes me sad and angry. I'm so grateful to you vets for your service.
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Exactly. What some of us have seen and dealt with has scarred us for life. I wrote about that very thing as part of my therapy. :(
To this day, I have had no contact with people I grew up with. We just couldn't connect.
https://lifeisacarnivalblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/youve-changed/
 
Your post really moved me. Fresh out of college and ready for life, I was approached, or asked, if I would like to attend an interview at the American Embassy. A number of companies were recruiting graduates for specific industries. What an opportunity. How excited I was when I told my father. Dad didn't exactly pour cold water on my enthusiasm but he did give me one piece of advice.
"At your interview," he said, "ask how long you can be a US resident for before being eligible for conscription. (The Draft.) The answer was twelve weeks.

Years later, and a lot wiser, I realised that the recruiting campaign was no more than a cover. It might have been a career for a fortunate few but thankfully I didn't take that chance.

When I read your post I said a silent prayer of thanks to my late father. Your experience could easily have been mine.
 
squatting dog said:
Exactly. What some of us have seen and dealt with has scarred us for life. I wrote about that very thing as part of my therapy. :(
To this day, I have had no contact with people I grew up with. We just couldn't connect.
https://lifeisacarnivalblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/youve-changed/
Click to expand...
Very true! I had the same experience coming back. I felt a combination of being so much older (not necessarily wiser) and living in a very different world for the one I left a year before.

Tony
 
squatting dog said:
Exactly. What some of us have seen and dealt with has scarred us for life. I wrote about that very thing as part of my therapy. :(
To this day, I have had no contact with people I grew up with. We just couldn't connect.
https://lifeisacarnivalblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/youve-changed/
Click to expand...
"What some of us have seen and dealt with has scarred us for life." I meant to make that point SD. I was listening to a radio program years ago which had a discussion about how many suicides there are among vets. The stats were too high! I remember when I was in my late teens. I worked in a store and there was a nice gentleman who worked there. One day I walked up behind him and just tapped him on the shoulder to ask something. He jumped and reacted. He then explained to me that he suffered from PTSD from being in the war.
 
squatting dog said:
Exactly. What some of us have seen and dealt with has scarred us for life. I wrote about that very thing as part of my therapy. :(
To this day, I have had no contact with people I grew up with. We just couldn't connect.
https://lifeisacarnivalblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/youve-changed/
Click to expand...
Yes, it would change me...forever. Just reading this has changed me. I lost many classmates and a brother-in-law in this war. The classmates came home in coffins. BIL made it home physically, but never mentally. And to this day war, any war, makes me sick. I am thankful YOU made it home and God Bless you always for what you did. If there truly is such a thing as hell, you have served it on earth. Peace to you my friend.
 
Not long after we arrived in Chu Lai, my Sgt. told me that 100 years from now nobody is going to give a crap about what we were doing here. In fact, (he continued to say), this war may not even be in the history books, so don't go and get yourself killed because "It won't mean nuthin'."
 
And I am still saying all I've seen and done it don't mean nothin.. Very hard times to remember haven't received much therapy and at my age don't see much of a point starting now 😕 I get through life just by continuing to live on with all I've been through very rough but it's what you must do... Long life of suffering many of us live
 
We were basically ghosts when we came home. Most people either hated us or ignored us. Now, since 9/11 it became popular to thank military men and women for their service. That's all fine and dandy but the fellow Vietnam vets I know would rather not hear it uttered in our presence. I try to be polite as the people saying those empty words are trying to be kind but to us it's too little too late and It Don't Mean Nothin'.
 
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