djingodjango - Posted - 02/13/2019:  09:31:32

Hi all. It's been awhile since I've visited the Banjo Hangout. Life has away of separating us from places we like to be.
Anyhow..... I know there are a lot of vets on this site so I thought I would share a piece I wrote and posted on another site.

Old Soldiers
by
George Heath Locke

We passed each other in the clickity-clean echoing hallways of the Fox Run Mall near Portsmouth NH yesterday.
He was wrinkled and old....Gray and weary, wearing a stained baseball cap with "Vietnam Veteran" stitched proudly into the brim.
His faded denim jacket laid bare a family crest of combat. A yellow shield crossed by a horses head.
First Air Cavalry.
He was, like me, somewhat stocky....a polite way to say fat.
We locked eyes for just a moment, then a nod and then passed each other without a word.
Two old soldiers.
And in that glance I saw so much.
A thousand hours sweating out humid jungle stink and trying to sleep in a corrugated metal hooch.
Or laughing stoned after using the barrel of his M16 as a bong. Or drinking cans and cans of beer.
Escaping silent plodding fear.
A million rapid heartbeats in waist-high grass or water buffalo churned rice paddies reeking of fertilizer scooped from an ill-named and ungodly smelling "honey pot".
Repeatedly cleaning his weapon and hugging it close as he jumps from a hovering Huey; skittish armored dragonflies too far from the LZ and too hot to stick around, the clacka-clacka whoosh of the rotors a constant soundtrack receding and leaving him and his platoon far from safety.
In that glance were dreams that jar you awake.
Even now.
Killing humans that wanted to kill you.
There were women of the night - thin, raven haired, scarlet lips dresses tightly, tightly shiny silk and satin colors blending into neon colors and loud music in the bars of Seoul and Saigon.
Hours wishing for home cursing yourself.
And years mourning fresh-faced fleeting friends now gone who once were as close as our now liver-spotted skin.
Or maybe it was a crushingly boring time in posts stateside.
Never getting closer, it seemed, to that adventure you thought you would find after high-school.
We passed, old soldiers.
And spoke not - but shared a lifetime.

BanjoLink - Posted - 02/13/2019:  15:27:44

George .... that was excellent. As a Marine in Viet Nam, some of my experiences were different, but in a way all the same. I recently read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantis (sp?) and although fiction, as soon as I read the first few pages I knew the author had spent time in Viet Nam. No one could write about the experiences like that without having been there. Upon finishing the book, I then read about Marlantis ..... a Princeton (or one of the Ivy League schools) .... winner of several Purple Hearts and the Navy Cross (one step below the CMH).

mike gregory - Posted - 02/13/2019:  15:57:56

Good writing about bad stuff.

wizofos - Posted - 02/13/2019:  16:14:27

I don't wear anything that identifies me as a Viet Vet, but I can see brothers in the grocery store or having lunch in the Costco food court. I see them with their grandkids, some of them still checking around to know where the exits are. Occasionally we connect, make eye contact and simply nod knowing each other and where we have been. We don't talk about it if there are other non-vets around especially our wives and kids.
40+ years does not make some habits and memories go away.

mander - Posted - 02/13/2019:  16:22:42

Glad you're back. Like the new avatar. :-)

djingodjango - Posted - 02/13/2019:  16:50:31

I was never in Vietnam. Korea got in the way. I was an Army photographer and journalist with the 1st Armored Cavalry.
I met with many men who had been to 'Nam and lost two friends who had.....and so many who were physically back home.....but not inside their heads.
In 1961 I was privileged to sit and talk with a Green Beret who just returned from Cambodia and was being de-briefed in South Korea. During our conversation, he constantly checked the doors and windows and always sat with his back to a wall.
And he was only there for a few months.

rinemb - Posted - 02/13/2019:  16:51:19

I enjoyed your post very much. Thanks for your service, Brad

dr4dpet - Posted - 02/15/2019:  00:57:11

quote:

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Originally posted by djingodjango

I was never in Vietnam. Korea got in the way. I was an Army photographer and journalist with the 1st Armored Cavalry.

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That's an MOS that's been gone for a long time, about 30 years I believe. (A staff sergeant I was talking to back around 87 when I was at Ft Meade told me he was being converted to a clerk (71L) because of the restructuring.)

Texican65 - Posted - 02/15/2019:  13:54:48

I liked this too George, thanks for posting. Reminded me of the man who raised me, that I called "dad". He was a green-beret and did two tours in Vietnam in 1970 and '71. He's been gone almost 15 years....this brought back some fond memories of him. Thanks,

Dow