The Veteran

He is now going to lose his VA approved house, and everything else he has, to a problem he acquired while in the service of his country. The doctors say he has to get out of where he is living right now. Just walk away from the house they say. Let the bank foreclose if he must or the stress of living there will kill him. The medical process is already well advanced.

He thinks often of his medical condition and the reasons for it. In this country where everyone it seems, waves flags and puts stickers on their cars to say how they support the highest paid all volunteer army in the history of the world, the troops in the occupational forces in the middle east, he wishes he had been one of the 56,000 whose names are cut into that low granite wall in Washington, D.C. At least he would have found peace long ago. He is now actually ashamed of having served in the United States Army in Vietnam, for what that army did to those soldiers, those they fought and the country itself. The army trained him for a specific part they wanted him to play and assigned him where it was needed. At the time he was proud to do his part for his country.

He is ashamed now because the America he was fighting for is not the America we are living in. He fought for the rights of all Americans. Now, based on what he has seen and lived through, he knows the truth. Now he feels that he and all of his comrades in arms were sucker punched – used up and tossed away like the rotted and mildewed jungle boots they had worn.

He is not stupid or naive. He knows no system of government will ever be perfect. He simply believes there is some good in everyone and if enough people put forth an effort, when it is needed, we can create a society much greater than those based entirely on greed and barbarism. He feels he put forth the effort but too many others tried to substitute lip service or a mere donation for that effort. His heart is heavy not only for himself, his family and fellow soldiers but for all of the other Americans who have been denied their legacy of a free country where all men are created equal and treated fairly.

In the near future, in some quiet, dark and empty place, I expect he will pull a trigger one more time. Such is the support still given to the veterans of America’s least popular war – Vietnam.