Made an old vet's day yesterday

Yesterday I stopped at a local truck stop for fuel and when I went inside I saw an old man in a uniform sitting alone at a table. He had obviously been at a memorial day ceremony somewhere. So I walked over to him, shook his hand and thanked him for serving our country. It ended up he was a WW2 navy vet. He looked like he wanted to talk so I sat down for awhile and chatted and listened. Found out he went to a country school that was a half mile away from where I live, plus some other old local information. When we ended the conversation he told me his wife passed last October and that he is new at being alone, in his words. I felt good for the rest of the day thing about our conversation and how I maybe helped a lonely old vet feel a little better. Too bad I didn't do this for more old people in the past because I felt I was too busy. Jim

You seized and apportunity Jim. Good for you.
Frank

You are a good guy.
Those old timers can really give an education if you listen.
In 10 years all the WW2 vets will gone.
My wives grandfather died 3 years ago, he was 91. He spoke fluent Italian and he was sent over to California to guard Italian POWs sent over from the European theater.

I can see myself in the same position in not so many years. I did a tour in Viet Nam. I still don't know the purpose of that mess. Was it to stop the spread of communism? If so, then we did a lousy job. The White House is full of communists. Did we do it for oil? Haven't seen much oil from there either. A lot of good men lost their lives for nothing.

So many times I won't realize what an older gentleman went through in his younger days till I read about him in the obituaries. A majority of the men who are in their upper eighties and nineties served in the battlefields of WW2 and/or Korea but they never talked about it. After hearing some of their stories I understand why. In the later years of their lives, when they realize they're on the downhill slope they sometimes want to let the world know they were once strong and able and were contributing to mankind.Now I feel I owe it to them to sit and listen to their stories.

When they got out of the service they didn't sit and wait for a handout. They went out and contributed to this nation's workforce instead of sitting around and waiting for the nation to hand them a check. They are the reason we are a free country.

I am in no way diminishing the young men and women who were in Viet Nam or any conflict since then. In fact I feel the US has abandoned them in some ways. They too will be old someday and will have their stories to tell. I hope when that time comes the young generation will take the time to sit and listen to and THANK them too. Jim

Had to do with the U.S. drug trade in that part of the world.

Jim good for you. I am sure you made his day!

I just wanted to add a little to this great topic. I spent 35 years as an electrician working in the trade. About 7 years ago I retired, was off for a year and ran out of things to do. I then found a part time job in maintenance in a nursing home/retirement community. You would often see these old bent over guys shuffling down the halls with their small steps and walkers. You wouldnt think much of this untill you did some work in their rooms. Often you would see pictures of WW 2 with them in it. These guys were the ones who won the war for us. The pilots,submarine crew members, the guys on the ships and the ground troops.

They have a lot of stories to tell once they trust you and open up, it is amazing the things they went thru and survived. They were and are truly the members of the "Greastest Generation"

IF you know one, shake his hand and tell him thankyou while we still can.

I personally believe that the US got to cocky and decided to micromanage a war from Wash. DC. As far as Vietnam is concerned.
We made our guys fight a war with both arms tied behind their backs, such as, dont bomb the levees, you cant go past this line to fight, etc. I heard a statement that the war would have been won in a few weeks if we flooded out those commies and kept bombing them. Korea was a different case, Chinese backed up the N.K. Army. A friend of mines dad was in Korea as a gunner, real ugly stories from him, he died in 1999.

When I went in the Air Force they taught we were pretty darn close to
winning Viet Nam, we just didn't have the resolve to do so. Others
that I served with had been there, statements they made would
indicate we were a lot closer to winning than we thought. We lost the
war in the media. It is still is and will always will be a problem
when we commit forces with out a clear objective and are not willing
to respond to our enemy in kind, we follow "the rules" they don't,
they wait us out the Media insures we'll soon tire of the war and
quit then the bad guys win. Some of it was also political, The Army
and Marines wouldn't let us win solely from the Air, because if
Airpower delivered a decisive victory it might indicate we don't need
such a large Army, they wouldn't like that.