October

Last night I watched the show, Two Days in October, shown on PBS. If you ever have a chance, watch it when it’s shown again. Those two days were in October of 1967 and the film recalls the horror of the war in Vietnam. It’s non-judgmental, simply showing the events and the comments of those who were involved, both in battle and in protest.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/

I was 27 at the time, and had been married for over 4 years. In 1967 we have a 3 year old daughter, Denise, and Alicia is just old enough to stand and contemplate walking. We have a new house in Newbury Park. We have two cars. I have a good job. Life is good in 1967. But every morning we read the newspapers and every night we watch the television news.

I suppose that what bothered me about this film, was the fact that it brought back all of those conflicting memories. (Our children and grandchildren have an entirely different view of the war in Vietnam.) For those of us who were living through it, it became a life changing event. For those who were in Vietnam, doing as they were told, it was both horrific and valorous.

I think that the war in Vietnam explains why I am so cynical today. Last night, as I listened to the veterans tell their stories; it was easy to see how conflicted they were. Many wanted to tell you that it all made sense somehow, but before they could finish their story, they were shaking their heads and crying as they remembered the futility of it all. Some were bitter; still wanting to punish those who protested the war.

A little story; It was a time in the early 1970’s. I was eating lunch, sitting on a stack of drywall at work and talking to another worker that had just been discharged from the Army. He told me of coming ashore in an LST, landing on a Vietnamese beach in full combat gear. His company had then been assembled and placed on trucks for the trip to the howitzer battalion that they had been assigned to. They took off for an anticipated one hour trip. The driver of their truck became lost and soon they were in the jungle, at night. Eventually they found their way to the battalion. The story? All of this time, from the beach landing to the ride through the jungle; they were without ammunition for their rifles. Empty guns. He laughed about it.