Virtual VietNam Wall

I have a few friend's names on the wall and a few fellow Marines that I served with. I live about two hours from D.C. and I have visited and cried at the Wall often. I have always wondered while being there how their lives would have turned out had they not been KIA in Vietnam.

Years ago, I received a letter from the family of a fellow Marine that became a close friend in my Division. We were usually sent out together on the same team to Recon areas that were plotted by the higher ups. We would talk about the things we were going to do together when we got out of the Marines, sort of like Bubba and Gump. I think a lot of servicemen do this that make friends. They said they found my name and address with his belongings. He was from a very small town in Wisconsin and I happen to be flying for Air Wisconsin at the time.

I had two days off, so I decided to drive to their home to visit with them and we talked for hours. He was buried in Arlington at his choice. I think they were more at peace after I left because I received a letter a week later thanking me for making their day and also for setting their hearts at peace. I sent them back a note to also thank them for their sincere hospitality and included a few pictures that I had in my possession of just him and some of us in the same Division with him.

That was the last contact that I ever had with them. Because I never heard back, I thought maybe I shouldn't have sent the pictures. Maybe I caused them some distress when they looked at the pictures.
 
I've seen the Mobile Viet Nam Memorial and it really got me "teary-eyed". It was at Knott's Berry Farm in So California during Veteran's Day Week. I talked to some Army Rangers that were in Viet Nam and their story's.........WOW!
I was in the Navy during Viet Nam and made my first Westpac Cruise over there in Dec. 1968. I was part of a Carrier Escort Group onboard a Destroyer. We "plane guarded" for the Carrier, Kitty Hawk and was on the "gun line/Yankee Station" in the Tonkin Gulf. Quite the "sight/sound" of firing a 5" gun. I was the Pointer during GQ.
 
I've been to The Wall twice. Each time I've felt a rise in emotions...especially when I see the names of two of my old high school friends carved into the stone. I was lucky enough to be in the USAF, and spent 1967 in Thailand, but we lost several F105's and a number of great young pilots during that time.
 
I don't know anyone on that wall. At least not that I could name. When I was in Vietnam as an Air Force medic we had some people die on the ward that I worked on which was internal medicine. I can remember four, but I can't remember their names. I do remember what they died from. One was from Malaria. We got lots of malaria patients in and almost all of them recovered in a few weeks. But this one dude came in with a particularly virulent strain of it and he was gone within 24 hours. Another guy died from Hepatitis. Hepatitis was pretty common over there among the grunts that were out in the bush having to refill their canteens from whatever mud hole they could find. But again almost all of them recovered in a few weeks. But this one guy got a really bad strain of it and he died about as fast as the malaria guy. Then there was a guy that died of amoebic dysentery. Again, dysentery was pretty common over there and most recovered but this one guy took a real bad turn for the worse while he was on our ward and started shitting almost pure blood. They rushed him to surgery and gave him something like 19 units of blood on the operating table but they couldn't save him.

The last guy was this kid who got endocarditis from mainlining heroin. Hard to feel sorry for him. He was pretty sick. One day when I was checking his vitals he looked up at me and asked me "Am I going to die". And I said to him "Of course not" because your not going to tell a dude anything different. Besides that I didn't think he was going to. But when I came back the next day for my shift he was gone. He had died that night. Guess he knew more than I did.

Being on internal medicine was a pretty sweet deal comparatively. I had a couple of hooch mates that worked in ICU. They had people die on them all the time. One night one of them came back from his shift and he had had four patients die on him that night. He started drinking and recounting the story of each one and after he got to where they died he would start laughing hysterically. I think the dude was having a PTSD episode.

Anyway none of my High School classmates died in Vietnam and quite a few went. We had a memorial ceremony in my senior year for a former graduate that had gotten killed over there. I knew him by sight but I can't remember his name. I remember he came to visit the school when he was on leave right after basic and he walked around in his uniform and told us stories about basic. He was in the Marines. Then a few months later he was dead. I looked at the names of the people that had died that were from Largo but none of them seemed familiar. Like I said I can't remember his name and he might not have put Largo down as his home of record when he enlisted.
 
I found 2 guys names I went to high school with.

I had 5 relatives who served in Vietnam, all came back. 3 are now deceased, 2 still living.

Thanks for posting the link, DonM.
 
No one from my tiny town but plenty in the surrounding area. I have a cousin who served. His Mom, my Aunt worked in the school cafeteria. It had to be hell waiting for them to come home or get a call.
My cousin was a helicopter gunner. He's written several books and has film coverage he took while on missions. Very colorful guy.
 
I was honored to be invited to go to the Wall this past Veterans Day, by the Utah Honor Flight, I went to copy my cousins name from the wall,I flew from Salt Lake and had a layover at the Nashville Airport in 1966, I was going to visit my grandmother in Mobile, Alabama, they called from the loud speaker for John Mizell, I went up to the counter, and there was another person there, the airline person asked for John Mizell, both of us answered. He was in the Army from Tennessee, I was in in the Marines, we talk for awhile, and he said I will see you in Vietnam Cousin, he was killed in Vietnam in January 1967, I went over in July
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I went to the names starting with the letter "S" and was saddened to see how long the list was. So may never came back. I was drafted in 69 but never got shipped overseas. I hated that stinking war.
 
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