POEMS - TRIBUTES -SONGS -PAGE 3

                              CREATION OF VIETNAM VETS 

When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, He was into 
His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared. 
"You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this 
one." 
And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Nam 
vet has to be able to run 5 miles through the bush with a 
full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter 
tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep 
his weapons clean and operable. 
He has to be able to sit in his hole all night during an 
attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in 
unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow 
keep his senses alert for danger. 
He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats 
and very little rest. And he has to have 6 pairs of hands." 
The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of 
hands....no way." 
The Lord say's "It's not the hands that are causing me 
problems.... It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam vet has to 
have." 
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. 
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant 
grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his 
buddies, another pair here in front that can look 
reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, " 
You'll make it".......when he knows he won't. 
"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow." 
"I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can 
carry a wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a firefight, 
calm the fears of the latest FNG, and feed a family of 4 on 
a grunt's paycheck." 
The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?" 
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, 
recite all his general orders, and engage in a search and 
destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow 
Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War, and 
still keep his sense of humor." 
"This Nam vet also has phenomenal personal control. He can 
deal with ambushes from hell, comfort a fallen soldier's 
family, and then read in his hometown paper how Nam vets 
are baby killers, psychos, addicts, killers of innocent 
civilians." 
The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also 
endure being vilified and spit on when he returns home, 
rejected and crucified by the very ones he fought for." 
Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's 
cheek, and said, "There's a leak...I told you that you were 
trying to put too much into this model." 
"That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear." 
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel. 
"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers 
as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth 
called the American flag, for the terror of living with 
PTSD for decades after the war, alone with it's demons with 
no one to care or help." 
"You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the 
tear. 
The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's 
distant shores.. "I didn't put it there," he said. 

Cause for reflection........God bless Vietnam vets 

(My thanks to Dan Huckins for sending this one in. bb)

Smitty - Ctrp, 3d Plt.................................Smitty and unknown NCO

Smitty prepares the meal..............................Smitty and unknown Trooper

Contributed by his brother: Jerry McDonald

When my brother, Sp4 Robert Smith, C-Trp, 3d Plt, was killed in action just 13 days short of DEROS, my world came apart. I was 15 at the time and had lost my father in a car wreck 5 years before that. When Dad was killed, Robert instinctively stepped up to the plate to make sure that I had a ' father figure ' to guide me on the correct path of life. Upon being notified of his death in April 1968, I thought that there was no such thing as a correct path of life anymore. I decided to stick my head in a liquor bottle, get a very disgusting attitude, and start to spiral almost completely out of control. I lost faith in my religion, my country, my family, and worst of all: Me. Sometime later on one of my Wild Crow ignorant excursions, I accidentally shot myself. Even that accident didn't totally change me. It was 2 months later when, again, I let a semi-automatic 25 caliber pistol discharge, missing the right leg and foot by just centimeters. That is when I woke up. I woke up, but kept in silence. I regained my faith, but was dying inside. I wanted to talk about Robert but didn't know how. I wanted to know if he had suffered, but didn't know who to ask. More than anything, I wanted to meet someone who knew him while he was in Vietnam, but didn't know how to find that person or persons. I felt that if I could find anyone who knew him, I could come to terms with his death. In 1998, 30 years after his death, I found that person via the Lost and Found section of the Vietnam Veterans Web Site. That person was Joe Birendelli. Joe sent me pictures of Robert that I had never seen, told me stories that I had never heard, but the one thing he told me that I had been agonizing over for 30 years was that Robert did not suffer. Joe welcomed me into his home in Fairhope, Alabama. He gave me something completely unexpected. On the Lost and Found web site I had written asking for closure. I now realize that 'closure' was really the wrong word because he gave me something better: he gave me comfort and peace of mind. On Veterans Day weekend 1999, my only other brother William and I had the distinct honor to participate in the dedication ceremony of the Lower Alabama Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Mobile, Alabama in which Joe was highly instrumental in getting achieved. It is one of the most profoundly honorable memorials that I have ever seen in my life. That is the only time that I put my uniform on since I retired in 1993. The highlight of that day was the presentation of the Silver Star to Joe for a battle he had fought in 1968. He was awarded that medal in the presence of veterans from all wars dating from WWII until The Gulf War. It was magnificent !!! To Joseph Birendelli: Thanks for helping, Thanks for healing, Thanks for hearing.

CW3 Jerry McDonald, United States Army Retired

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This page last updated on 5 Oct 2000