Though I served in the military, I was very fortunate and did not ever serve in battle. Too many Americans were not so fortunate and whenever I hear “Veteran’s Day” I especially remember two of my friends.
The last time I saw my friend Rich, he was sweeping the sidewalk in front of his father’s store. It was the late 60’s and my best friend Ray and I were out riding our bikes when we spotted him. We stopped to say hello since it had been nearly three years since we last saw him as our Boy Scout Patrol Leader. Rich had spent a year in Vietnam with the First Marine Division and he wore his experience with a noticeable limp as he swept. Ray and I expected smiles and war stories, but Rich was reticent, though polite. Ray and I spoke to him only briefly before riding on. Rich the veteran was a stark contrast to Rich our friend and Boy Scout. He had survived combat but had yet to find peace.
Years later, I worked with a gentle and somewhat solitary fellow named Dennis who would become a good friend. He was an army veteran of the war in Vietnam. He told me in his heart, he was a pacifist and considered declaring himself a “conscientious objector” and avoiding the war altogether. Instead, a few months after receiving his draft notice, he found himself in uniform as a medic in an infantry unit north of Saigon. “On the very first day in my unit,” he said, “I was caught in the middle of a firefight.” He was shadowing the medic he was replacing when they were pinned down behind a berm in a farm field. Soon there was a call for a medic from fellow squad members and the senior medic told the newbie to stay put while he moved forward to render aid. As soon as the medic reached the top of the berm, a bullet felled him—dead, leaving the newbie, “shocked and scared s***less,” he said. “My first day was his very last!”
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Dennis went on to serve bravely and honorably and would later reconcile his convictions with his role in the war. Neither he nor Rich came home to celebratory honors or fanfare. During the Vietnam War, America did not see veterans in the same light as we see them today. Whenever I see a veteran today with a missing limb, I think of Rich. When I see footage of our soldiers in today’s conflicts, I wonder who’s experiencing his very first day and think of my friend Dennis.
