Not Our Father's War

For the last six years, I've been listening to what they have to say. I keep trying to tell people that the Vietnam Veterans are the greatest generation because they reached back to say, "come with me" to the new generation of veterans. They said that never again would they leave other veterans behind and they meant it. This is for them.

Not Our Father's War

by

Nam Guardian Angel
They say it's not our father's war
but somehow most of it is as before
While they came home from Vietnam alone to jeers
we're coming home in groups to cheers.
Aside from that, the wounds are the same
and you wonder what all these years have gained
when it comes to taking care of those who don't come back the same.
Our fathers came home with the war inside their soul
get over it they were told
by their fathers who had been before
but they knew it wasn't their fathers war.
While they came home from Korea and WWII in groups to cheers
their sons came home alone to jeers
and in the silent suffering with bitter tears they shed
some wondered if they'd be better off dead.
While the Wall has over 58,000 names engraved
too many managed to put themselves in a grave.
They say the couple of hundred thousand taking their own lives with suicide
was just a part of war and part of the war buried deep inside.
But we know it's not our fathers war
because we know so much more than we knew before.
We know this all because of them
and the chance they gave us to live again.
The battles they fought when they came home,
made sure we'd never have to fight our own alone.
They decided that never again
one generation would abandoned another again
and they made sure the battle after war
didn't turn out like their fathers war.

They made sure the battles they fought here at home would be ones that would take care of every generation of veterans, or at least they would die trying. They are still fighting to make sure this happens. We wouldn't know anything about PTSD if they did not fight for it. Had they just sucked it up and settled for "get over it" there would be no accomplishments in treating PTSD or trying to bring understanding of what PTSD is. The stigma would be even stronger than it is. While there is so much further to go with this wound of war, further to go on how we treat those we send, we owe what has been done to the Vietnam veterans.

Have you hugged a Vietnam vet lately and said thank you?
Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington