Memorial Day 2014

by Jack

Today was a cool summer morning and by 0945 hrs. the seating for the annual Memorial Day Event at the Chico cemetery was full.   Those who chose to stand and the late arrivals gathered in large numbers behind those seated.   I noticed that a fair number in the audience wore jackets or black vests that said. “Viet Nam” and they gave their dates of service.   Others (that still could) wore their old uniforms and many more just wore baseball caps with USN, USMC, Army, USAF or Coast Guard above the bill.   If you took note, you would find that all the services were well represented, including our dedicated reserves.   Some older Vets were with several generations of their families.  Some also came alone to pay their respects quietly.

At exactly 1000 hrs. the master of ceremonies directed the band to play America the Beautiful and so began another tribute to our fallen heroes from wars gone by and one that is still fresh.

It seemed that there were more people at the ceremony this year than in recent years.   Of course there were not nearly as many WWII or Korean War Vets this time.  Age is taking it’s toll on them.  But, to replace their numbers there were more Viet Nam Vets than ever before.

If they were 18 when WWII began, they would likely be in their late 80’s or early 90’s.   Most Korean era Vets are in their seventies to early 80’s.   My generation, the Vietnam era, are getting up there too.  We’re in our 60’s an older.  Vietnam was the start of the long [police action] type wars that took us to the Gulf conflicts and beyond.  These have been some of our most costly wars, even though casualties have been relatively light compared to previous actions.  The sheer cost has nearly bankrupted us.

Vietnam essentially began in 1961 and it lasted until 1973, 12 long years of increasing America casualties.   Before it was over 58,220 America military personnel  died, and 5569 were from California.   Two years after the US involvement ended South Vietnam fell to the communists.   My generation died to prop up a c0rrupt dictatorial regime based on the Domino Theory to stop the spread of communism.   It was doomed to fail because we were never allowed to win it, but worse, we fought it with confused policies coming out of Congress, the Pentagon and the White House.  It was a deeply flawed war fighting plan that  drew us deep into war after the Gulf of Tonkin incident.  Then those policies kept us fighting a jungle war for over a decade.

Vietnam Vets were probably the most represented veterans at this years event, even though we’ve had Grenada, Panama, Gulf 1 and Gulf II and Afghanistan wars that followed Vietnam.  Those wars combined involved more military personnel, but for some reason these later generations rarely turn out, they are not yet in retirement and they are more content to be home with their families or using this time for vacations.

Back to our event…there was the traditional laying of the wreaths to honor the 1,263,316 war dead.  This is the sum total of dead beginning with the Revolutionary War right up to the war in Afghanistan.   To date, almost 34 million Americans have served in war.   that’s a staggering number to imagine.  Did you know that no war in our history claimed more deaths per population than the war we fought with ourselves?  The Civil War took 1965 Americans per each 100,000 of population.   That is a kill ratio over 6 times higher than the combat deaths from WWII.

It is a sobering thought to think of all that talent and all those unborn generations that we lost to wars.  Imagine…over a million and a quarter war dead.

When we gathered at the cemetery this Memorial day we were all reminded of this high price.   Each of us there was in some say touch by war.   As a community of Americans we’ve  paid a high price to defend our nations liberty, as well as for our nation’s military mistakes.   This is why war should be a mission of last resort.   Unless it’s a fight to the bitter end with complete and utter annihilated of an opposing force - we can’t bomb our way to peace!  It doesn’t work that way.  We will only create more enemies than we kill, so there has to be a better way.

To some, America and in particular my generation has been branded as the loser of the Viet Nam war.   That’s unfair.  We didn’t lose that war anymore than we lost the Korean war, the Spanish – American War or the War of 1812.   Like those wars, we reached an armistice; an amicable end to armed conflict…period.   Whatever you else you might think about the Viet Nam war, we were never defeated.  We dictated our own terms and we left behind a country that should have been able to defend itself, if they were motivated to do so, but that is a whole other story.   In battle after battle we established ourselves and undefeated in Vietnam.  Same goes for Gulf 1 and 2 and in Afghanistan.   However, the politics, the diplomacy and our foreign policies are another matter entirely.  Their successes or failures is a matter for historians to decide.  But, as for our American military fighting forces - they did their job and they won every battle.   For right or wrong, we’ve never lost a war since we began as a nation.

In closing, on this Memorial Day I’m reminded that my high school graduating class was touched by war more than most.  We were the children of the WWII generation.  My Dad was a WWII Navy Vet.  My Grandmother was a Gold Star Mother from WWI.   I lost a one good friend and several classmates I knew fairly well to the Vietnam war.  I also knew others from my class that suffered debilitating wounds for decades afterwards.

Much later in life I would come to know more losses of friends in Gulf I and II.  All this has caused me rethink my former thoughts about the projection of American military might and about our foreign policy and who leads this nation.

These were just a few of my random thoughts today while I watched and listened to our Memorial service.  And perhaps this is needless to say, but it was a very somber and introspective time for me, as I’m sure it was for so many other former Vets, friends of Vets and family members of Vets, past and present.

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“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.” Gen. Omar N. Bradley

“War is hell.”  William Tecumseh Sherman  (and he should know, he inflicted a lot of hell on his fellow Americans in the South)

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare. Sun Tzu

“When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.” Winston Churchill

There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it.” Havelock Ellis

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” George Washington

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” Dwight D. Eisenhower