VETERANS DAY 2022 - 11 NOVEMBER, 2022
I belonged to the VFW, American Legion, my local Band of Brothers, the USROC (Taiwan) 823BOHAUSA Association, the USS Ticonderoga CVA-14 and the HMS Victorious R-38 Veterans Associations, have veterans license plates, wear my Veterans hat, use the VA medical services, proudly display my awards on the living room wall, and pasted the VN campaign ribbon on my front door… It was always my duty to each year celebrate and honor May 21, Armed Forces Day, May 30, Memorial Day, July 4, Independence Day, June 6 D-Day, Sept. 11, Patriot Day/911, Nov. 11, Veterans (Armistice) Day, and Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day.
I grew up in a patriotic based society that celebrated all the military holidays, from Jamestown on, it was taught from kindergarten and encompassed every Indian war, and battle with England, France, Mexico, the South, Japan, Germany, Korea, and a lot of undeclared “conflicts” that involved residents of the Ohio land area to participate in. this was serious stuff, with monuments to the fallen in every county, museums, schooling, and constant references were everywhere. Parades and flying the colors kept the memories alive.
The enthusiastic patriotic regional efforts spilled over to the state and county levels, with major cities becoming hot spots for allegiances, and identity… school sports, college and professional sports, and “anything” competitive… created the driving Win-Win-Win insanity of sports, industry, education, and your inner self. After Korea, the atmosphere changed quickly, Interstate Highways, V8 engines, Peace-time, and Jet airliners all arrived in 1955.
I was 12 years old and too young to know about the nuances of Government, Washington DC politics, or world affairs… if it was not in Ohio it simply either did not exist or it was inferior. In a single year, the change happened, the parades became only on Thanksgiving, New Years, memorial day, and the 4th… Oh, they all carried on for a while, but the lack of a crowded sidewalk, angry motorists complaining about access, the noise complaints, clean-up costs, and loss of business hours, all pretty well throttled down the excitement and future of patriotism. Only Ohio sports events would survive the insanity of anti-hyper-identity alignment.
In 1957 or so, one old timer told me that since everyone who was born in-around-after WW1 had veteran parents, then “they” returned from W2 and Korea as Veterans also… the overwhelm of war and a high number of veterans in society simply no longer wanted the recall, and the display, reminder, or applause for anything war related any longer. My Boomer generation entered as third in this sequence with the Laos-Cambodia-Viet Nam war hitting in 1959-60, there was no escape we were 3rd generation war oriented veteran-raised kids, our grandparents, parents (and possibly our 19th-century relatives) were all military war-raised generations.
However, not all families were veteran-oriented, some families had created such intense anti-war stances that they raised their children to be 100% pacifistic, thus creating a split society of beliefs… enter the (hippy anti-war protestor, draft dodger, even Marxist) opposition to Win-Win-Win kick their ass, we are number one! flag- waving enthusiastic nationalism.
Because of the unpopularity of the war, the huge loss of life, and how it divided the country, plus the draft angst that went along with it. The Vietnam war was more than a conflict, like any war, it tore families apart, took fathers away from their wives and children, but, the huge loss of life and “how” events were handled was now more exposed to the public through better media, TV exposure, and it began the public awareness of Government in a new and different light.
Back then (1960), 75% of our US senators were war veterans, by 1975 that was up to 81%, today only 17% of our lawmakers have had any military service. NBC News found that in 2022 of the young Americans that are eligible to serve in the military, only 9% have any inclination to do so, because of the type of training, so, there are discussions ongoing of bringing back the draft.
The number of people in our active duty strike force has dropped significantly, from 3.5 million in 1968, during the Viet Nam era, to about 1.4 million (or less than 1% of all U.S. adults) in today’s all-volunteer force, as a nation of 335 million citizens, only about 15 million (5% of the US population) are military veterans, down from 18% in 1980, ranging from 1941 WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, Desert Storm, through the Afghanistan (2022) Vets.
As you stand at the curb, and watch these old veterans march through our nation's streets (in the rain, snow and wind) be very aware there is more to today than flags, free beer, and a BBQ, these are 162,000 World War II veterans who are still alive today, 8 million surviving Viet Nam Veterans, 4,062,000 Post-9/11 veterans, and over 2 million Female veterans who have served to keep this country free and safe, we are around 5 % of the population and proud to have served, but, we are the ones who came home, the three mottos of “All gave some, some gave all”, “no one left behind”, and “you are not forgotten” rings very loud for each of us as we remember our service time today.
All of us swore a lifelong oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... we did our part, today, as veterans we see personnel, domestic policies, and programs in our government and military that need to be identified, called out, and effectively removed.
America’s veterans and our numerous veterans organizations all stand by.
SEE https://www.all4null.com/2022/12/flattop-sailor.html
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