MEMORIAL DAY, 2019...

Please don't say "Happy Memorial Day" to me...

But do say: "...thank you for helping to keep the South Vietnamese people free, and thank you for serving our country in time of need, and war."

Memorial Day is not a happy day.  It is a sad day.  But it is a necessary Day for all Americans to remember that without a military force, there would be no United States of America.

I went to Vietnam on December 16, 1967.  As you can see, that was right before Christmas.  I wasn't angry that I would miss that special day celebrating the birth of our Lord, because I volunteered to go to South East Asia -- 12,000 miles from home.

I returned to the U.S. -- the "world" as we used to say, on December 16, 1968.

Over 58,500 of my brothers did not come home to live, but to be buried, and many are now lying in Arlington National Cemetery, their home until the end of time.

Here is a poem that I wrote for my book: Tragedy and Triumph at Sun Valley...

TO MY BROTHERS:

Side by side we stood,
Black or white, it made no difference.
Catholic, Protestant, Jew, or atheist.
I may not have liked you, but I loved you.

Only God can give and only God can take away,
But Charlie took and never gave.
Why did my bunker-mate die and I live"
To fulfill my dreams but not his?

Yet he is with me always -- in my dreams,
Not wanted there, as I struggle to sleep.
Lord help me to live and not just exist;
Take this burden from my soul.

Have mercy on them that stayed,
Some here, some there.
Arlington is their home now,
As mine will some day be.


I remember the day myself and a large group of GIs were waiting for our plane to arrive at the Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, air terminal to take us home to the U.S.

The plane was over 12 hours late.

We were wondering if we would ever get out of that place...

But the commercial airliner arrived; we boarded the jet; it was packed.

But it was quiet, very quiet...

That is, until the pilot announced that we were out of missile range.  At that point, the GIs erupted in cheers and happy yells!

Our lives, however, would never be the same...

Pray for our veterans as I pray for all my brother Vietnam veterans every day...

Gene DeLalla