Posted on Sep 27, 2015
Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'
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Did you know that Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'?
Did you know that Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'?
Great Article RP members! Very touching story!
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/orem-veteran-promises-that-vietnam-vets-will-not-be-forgotten/article_1814fee5-ad06-504c-a95e-3546b3863a08.html
Gary Campbell a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Marines, photographed in Orem on Thursday, September 3, 2015. India Company, the 180-man unit that Campbell was in, sustained 34 dead and 80 wounded when they were ambushed by the enemy during Operation Hastings in 1966. Campbell and many others in his company received the Purple Heart and numerous other awards of valor.
Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell doesn't hesitate to talk about the Vietnam War, because of a promise he made to the dead and dying in the 1960s – they will not be forgotten.
His words paint a vivid and stark story against the background of the politics at the time and the humid hot jungles of the country.
“The four stories I tell are the ones that are the most important to me, because they are about my buddies, my men that didn’t come home,” Campbell said.
His voice trembled as he showed an old photo of India Company. The soldiers in the photo are standing on bleachers to get every uniformed Marine in the frame.
Did you know that Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'?
Great Article RP members! Very touching story!
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/orem-veteran-promises-that-vietnam-vets-will-not-be-forgotten/article_1814fee5-ad06-504c-a95e-3546b3863a08.html
Gary Campbell a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Marines, photographed in Orem on Thursday, September 3, 2015. India Company, the 180-man unit that Campbell was in, sustained 34 dead and 80 wounded when they were ambushed by the enemy during Operation Hastings in 1966. Campbell and many others in his company received the Purple Heart and numerous other awards of valor.
Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell doesn't hesitate to talk about the Vietnam War, because of a promise he made to the dead and dying in the 1960s – they will not be forgotten.
His words paint a vivid and stark story against the background of the politics at the time and the humid hot jungles of the country.
“The four stories I tell are the ones that are the most important to me, because they are about my buddies, my men that didn’t come home,” Campbell said.
His voice trembled as he showed an old photo of India Company. The soldiers in the photo are standing on bleachers to get every uniformed Marine in the frame.
Vietnam War
Marines
Valor
Honor
Posted 9 y ago
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I don't believe that the War in Vietnam or we its veterans will ever be forgotten. To me, the far greater concern is how will we be remembered. Sadly, the great body of popular writing about we and our war lies in journalism of that period which is fraught with errors. Journalists of that period told only those facts which fit their narrative and buried those which didn't. As a result, the "historical" record is greatly distorted and shows little hope of being corrected. Efforts such as Gary Campbell's promise and the writings of other veterans such as my memoirs and weblog are minuscule compared to the hysterical pronouncements of journalists like Walter Cronkite and ideologues like Mike Wallace. Thus I fear that the truth may molder with us in our graves.
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COL Ted Mc
Capt Seid Waddell - Captain; Have no fear, the facts will out.
Be equally sure that the people bringing the facts forward will be accused of "historical revisionism" by those who don't like the fact that the truth is being revealed.
Be equally sure that the people bringing the facts forward will be accused of "historical revisionism" by those who don't like the fact that the truth is being revealed.
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Capt Seid Waddell
CPT Jack Durish, you are exactly correct. How can we come to an accurate evaluation of the history when those writing it were just pushing their own personal propaganda?
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs - Mikel; Not only shouldn't the veterans be forgotten but how and why the US ACTUALLY got involved in Vietnam should be remembered.
Over 50,000 Americans died because the US government decided to ignore the assessments of its own experts in the field by propping up the re-imposition of a colonial regime in SouthEast Asia (in order to achieve benefits through French co-operation in Europe) and then using an "incident" that it knew didn't happen in order to prop up a venal, corrupt, and dictatorial regime.
Did the troops who went to Vietnam know any of that? Of course not. They went, and served (almost exclusively) honorably. They fought well. They defeated the military forces opposing them. They never had a chance to defeat the political forces arrayed against them and which they didn't understand (because they were never told the truth about them). They never had a chance to defeat the cultural forces arrayed against them and which they didn't understand (because they were never told the truth about them).
Over 50,000 Americans died because the US government decided to ignore the assessments of its own experts in the field by propping up the re-imposition of a colonial regime in SouthEast Asia (in order to achieve benefits through French co-operation in Europe) and then using an "incident" that it knew didn't happen in order to prop up a venal, corrupt, and dictatorial regime.
Did the troops who went to Vietnam know any of that? Of course not. They went, and served (almost exclusively) honorably. They fought well. They defeated the military forces opposing them. They never had a chance to defeat the political forces arrayed against them and which they didn't understand (because they were never told the truth about them). They never had a chance to defeat the cultural forces arrayed against them and which they didn't understand (because they were never told the truth about them).
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CPT Jack Durish
COL Ted Mc - I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For every "authority" you can cite, I can cite another in opposition. The one thing that tends to make me lend credence to the assertion that the US was not supportive of France's colonial claims is that France reciprocated by withdrawing from NATO. Now some say that the French were merely expressing their right to act independently (they were tired of being viewed as the "cheese eating surrender monkeys" of WWII and wanted to assert themselves. I've never believed that one since they were still adjoining Germany which they distrusted and just a hop skip and a jump from the Iron Curtain. Again, I'm sure you can support opposing views to mine on this subject as well. At least it's pleasant not to be caught in an Internet squabble with someone who merely replies with ad hominem attacks. Thank you for that...
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CPT Jack Durish
COL Ted Mc - Oh, one last thing I failed to mention is that there is plenty of room for disagreement when interpreting US diplomacy. It seems that US diplomats themselves were never quite sure of what the hell they were doing (a problem that continues to this day). Quite often the US State Department tends to stand back and allow US citizens to define their policy for them. I discovered this as I researched Cuba in preparation of writing my novel about Castro's revolution. It seems that United Fruit and the Mafia pursuing their separate goals on that island dictated US policy there until it was too late. When Eisenhower was finally forced to replace his WWI buddy with a new ambassador it was too late to do anything about the evolution of events there.
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COL Ted Mc
CPT Jack Durish - Captain; I think that you have identified the nub of the problem.
IF the policies of the US government(s) had been consistent (even from day to day, let alone from administration to administration) the whole situation would be (and have been) much clearer.
With respect to Iraq, there is as much evidence (coming from those who provided the evidence in opposition to the actions) that President Bush ignored the clear cut evidence which didn't support his views as there is evidence (coming from those who provided the evidence supporting the actions) that President Bush's actions were completely supported by the evidence.
With the extension of the allowable time for which records may be sealed, it's possible that our children's grandchildren may well be having the same discussions and/or decrying the "historical revisionism" occasioned by the actual release of the relevant documents (making the rash assumption that they haven't been lost and/or rendered unreadable due to the passage of time).
IF the policies of the US government(s) had been consistent (even from day to day, let alone from administration to administration) the whole situation would be (and have been) much clearer.
With respect to Iraq, there is as much evidence (coming from those who provided the evidence in opposition to the actions) that President Bush ignored the clear cut evidence which didn't support his views as there is evidence (coming from those who provided the evidence supporting the actions) that President Bush's actions were completely supported by the evidence.
With the extension of the allowable time for which records may be sealed, it's possible that our children's grandchildren may well be having the same discussions and/or decrying the "historical revisionism" occasioned by the actual release of the relevant documents (making the rash assumption that they haven't been lost and/or rendered unreadable due to the passage of time).
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CPT Jack Durish
COL Ted Mc - Amen [Note: Let this be a lesson for everyone else: If the Col and I can find grounds for agreement anyone can do it]
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