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Sharon Smith's avatar

Christine, I loved your post this morning. The “Stand By” poem was spare and moving as was your husband’s story behind it. I went to school with boys who served in Viet Nam, boys who lost their lives there, one who lost his leg there. One sweet friend was drafted into the Marines (that was a thing for a short while.) He has suffered daily for decades from Agent Orange exposure - he still suffers daily in a nursing home in Ohio. My cousin Eddie lived through his time there, got two bronze stars, came home to a short life sporting a hole he filled with alcohol and drugs - died before he was 30. My immediate family was lucky - my brothers and father were too old for Viet Nam - at eighteen I moved to DC. It was 1969 and I marched against that war. We marched past the White House with candles. Nixon later said he was watching football at the time. The friend I knew in the peace movement supported the people who served in Viet Nam. Felt gratitude and sadness for what they did and what they had to live through. Hated the war but not the men and women that fought it. Thanks for asking, Christine.

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Deborah Nash Ott's avatar

Interesting article, Christine - thank you.! I love your poem, and your husband's bouts of PTSD remind me of experiences I had with Vietnam vets. It was 1972. They'd returned to the States and taken advantage of the GI Bill. And there I was, at SUNY Oswego, just beginning my four-year undergraduate degree in English as these young men entered their programs. So many of them were messed up, drinking and drugging heavily, many cynical about the nation for which they fought, and rightly so. I befriended several of them - they just wanted someone to talk to. My experience with those struggling vets turned into, much later, a short story I entitled "Bamboo."

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