(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Steve used to spend many hours at our home with my son practicing tae kwon do, walking a tight rope and doing various other annoying things.
Actually none of the martial arts and athletic stunts were annoying but Steve could be. If I had only known more about his family… Well let’s not go there.
Steve went into Special Forces. My son chose to become a sissy Navy nuke. Hard to say who was most foolish but Steve had the most adventures.
Steve was in a wheelchair for months and told he would never walk again. Steve was eagerly pursuing his lifelong ambition to be an artist now that he could when he somehow managed to walk again. Intractable pain in his back will probably last for a lifetime but, hey, what do you expect when you enlist?
Steve was once court-martialed and imprisoned for years for breaking most everything to break in a Korean officer’s body when the Korean sought to enforce an illegal command with a pistol to Steve’s ear. His family always knew Steve was no good but the Army didn’t. Months after the affair had blown over, Steve had his rank, pay and status quietly restored.
After leaving the Army, Steve became a professional sky diver. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a professional sky diver but Steve is or was one.
At least one time, an adventure as a skydiver matched any combat in wars we never fought. Steve landed in a lake after tangling with a tree and was unable to free himself from the parachute and back pack. As recounted by my son, Steve strained to get an occasional breath of air. A five-year-old on the way from the drop talked about one man in a lake to his father as they were on their way home. Steve was rescued after an hour or two. He thought he was a goner, Steve told my son.
Steve whines some on occasion about lost records of wars never fought, like other Special Forces recruits and even this “peacetime” Vietnam veteran, but this is a day for generals and admirals and chickenhawks who held our coats and sent us off to war. Some of us are just too dumb to learn. I will thank you for not mentioning it.
Best, Terry
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of the many wars that were fought so we would have no more wars, it was revealed in a leaked memo from Pres. Obama to John Boehner during the 2011 negotiations, that the president was very willing to throw all those veterans under the bus in order to achieve his grand bargain:
Obama was reelected with the hope that he had changed. I don’t think the voters realize how little difference there was between hm and his opponent Romney. The only thing that stands between Obama getting these draconian cuts to the safety net is the Senate.
We are screwed.
Author
Means a lot to me.
Though few may read and of those who do fewer will care, Steve is very real as are all the veterans among whom I dare to number myself.
I visited The Wall in D.C. years ago and I started looking for the name of the first man to make it onto the honor roll of baby killers even as a “peacetime” veteran in Vietnam. Something got in my eye as I was looking and my wife gently lead me away.
I would love to chisel the name of the lady who designed that wall. She took terrific punishment for her incredible artistry.
We know about such things.
Best, Terry