58,000.
That’s the population of the cities like Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Bozeman, Montana. Sanford, Florida.
It’s also the number of names carved into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
58,000 Americans who didn’t come home.
This is Memorial Day. Time to honor those fallen service members and all who have fallen while serving to protect and defend the freedom of those of us lucky enough to call ourselves citizens of the greatest nation on earth.
Nha Trang, Circa 1966
Vietnam was a primary focus of about 10 of my 30 years in the Air Force. 1963 to 1973.
In 1966 I witnessed something that made me fervently wish that conflict would end. Quickly.
I was the navigator on a C-130 aircrew, grounded in Nha Trang, waiting on some maintenance. I walked out to the flight line.
Another C-130 was loading body bags for transport home.
The stench was terrible.
As I approached, I saw the tags. These are not the real names but names like these:
Sgt. Charles Smith, 23, St. Louis, MO
Pvt. Joey Jones, 18, Charlotte, NC
Cpl. Sammy Cohen, 22, Newark, NJ
The ages.
The ages struck me to the core.
What the hell were we doing?
When will this war end?
It Did Not End There
Not for me.
I flew several more airlift missions. Then I served a full year in-country, summer 1969 to summer 1970. Over 100 recon missions as navigator on the venerable C-47 “Gooney Bird.” The oldest aircraft in the USAF inventory.
I followed that with four years at the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center in Denver, administering pay accounts and helping the families of our POWs and MIAs.
The most rewarding and entangling assignment of my 30-year career.
The Price
58,000 lives was only part of the story.
Over 300,000 service members were wounded. More than 150,000 needed hospitalization. About 75,000 were permanently disabled. And Lord only knows how many of us came home carrying some form of PTSD.
We also burned billions of our national wealth on a lost cause.
Then came 1973. The end of hostilities. The return of our POWs.
A highlight of my career.
The war itself didn’t end until 1975. Hardly any of our MIAs have ever been found.
Korea
As brutal and tragic as Vietnam was, there is another war, nearly forgotten now, that was even more deadly.
Korea. About three years. Over 36,000 American lives lost.
The 58,000 we lost in Vietnam came over fifteen years.
Korea took 36,000 in three.
Let that sink in.
May God bless and protect all of our fallen military brothers and sisters, our first responders, and their loved ones and families on this Memorial Day.
In our great nation.
Amen.
