war

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U.S. Foreign Policy


With his “America First” policy, Trump has decimated our stance as a world leader into a more isolationist policy not seen since 1940 and how did that turn out?

There are responsibilities that go with being the richest nation in the world. We do need to give Americans the first consideration. But that does not absovle us from our foreign policy stance over the past 60+ years. NATO was created immediately after WW2 to create a strong bond between the Western European Countries with the U.S. in defense of those countries. An alliance born of necessity. Trump certainly has no inkly of history as he is right now seeking to destroy that alliance. Why? Because he does not want to pay America’s part in that organization. In 1950 there we 12 countries that were a part of NATO. Today there are 32.

At stake is the peace of all Europe while Russia wars with Ukraine. Trump took office and cut Ukraine off from our assistance. And yet, Ukraine is still taking the fight to Russia. If Russia could defeat Ukraine, it would have already done so. That simple statement should show that each sovereign nation in the world has the God given right to self-determination.

But why is Trump still cow-towing to Putin? He is a despot, a man who thinks nothing of killing his own people. But also a man so in fear of his own life that he isolates himself again possible assasination by his own people. Trump either does not see or does not care that Putin is trying to revive, as much as possible, the old Soviet Union of which he was a part and still longs for those days.

Morality dictates that all free countries of Europe and the U.S. have a responsibility to assist the Ukrainian people against a warring nation, Russia. Right now Europe is doing its best by upping their ante so that they are now giving 5% of their budget to their military. In an ironic twist of history, Germany now has troops based in Lithuania, a country where Jews were eradicated by the German Nazi regime. But ask the average Lithuanian how they feel about the German present and they will tell you how happy they are there. (Atlantic, January 2026, pp. 56-65)

Past administrations have accepted that as a world leader, America has a responsibility to the rest of the world to help where help is needed. Organization such as the World Health Organization (WHO), several UN organizations, and food assistance to Africa have lost American monies they desperately need. Our counties is fast becoming the parriah of the Western World. The Trump’s “don’t care” policy toward the rest of the world is exasperating. We are responsible.

And finally Trump’s ploy to gain Greenland is dumb by any standard. Right now the U.S. can already do almost anything it pleases in Greenland by a treaty signed many many decades ago. We do not need to do anything more.

The world sees Trump as his really is. A playground bully, who, when he does not get his own way will use force to accomplish such. These policies must change or by 2029, the U.S. will have far fewer allies than it did in 2024.

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It is Time We Saved Ukraine From Putin


We have a war that actually started in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and declared that is was their territory anyway. The war that started then continues today. Russian is now bombing civilian areas indiscretely. At some point the United States must say, enough is enough.

What we must do is go to Ukraine’s assistance by using specialized troops on the ground. Not a single troop needs to be infantry, rather they should be artillery and air defense artillery along we a wing of U.S. Air Force fighters.

Early in this conflict, Putin sabre rattled that he would use battlefield nukes and maybe more. He has a problem there and it is call MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). That means we have just as much as he does, and this is not including the European countries. And if a single nuke gets used on the battlefield, it will be like 1943 where the U.S. was still building up its strength while winning battles everywhere.

To put a period on this type of action, we would have to declare India, Brasil, China, North Korea, and Russia as enemy combatants. Once we have unilaterally gone into battle, it would not take much for the rest of the NATO countries to join in, and for Russia, that is very bad. At that point Russia would have nothing to gain and everything to lose and just by the troop movements, there might be an immediate end of hostilities. NATO must stand strong and demand that Russia pull all its troops at least 200km from any non-Russian border. Not a single bullet shot by any NATO country but by putting up is enough to get Russian to shup up.

With the exception of Belarus, Russia has no friendly countries in the rest of Europe. When nearly the entirety of Europe lines up against you in a show of strength, you do nothing but admit defeat as the victor’s demands.

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PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP!!!


It has been a while since I have written here but this is to inform you that I believe Trump to be a real and present danger to this country. You must listen to what he says and believe it. You must also read about what he has said and believe it. Your life depends upon this.

If Trump is elected he will take an isolationist position for America. His “buy American” will backfire quickly. Trump plans on putting 100% tariffs on many incoming good that we use everyday and is not in competition with the U.S. For example, have you ever wondered where all your fruits and vegetables come during the winter months, October to May? We import from South America and in large part from Chile. You cell phones are all made in Korea or China. The price for them will be doubled. There are many other examples when you think about it.

This is my plea for peace. Trump has promised he will take us out of NATO. He is then going to call Putin, who he is in league with, that he can have Ukraine because we will not longer support them. That will signal to Putin that the use of battlefield nuclear weapons is all right. (from “War” by Bob Woodward) Once Russia takes control of Ukraine his next move will be to take over Moldova, a NATO country. That will spur an all out war because the NATO motto is “what you do to one of us, you do to all of us.” Now we are in a world war, again. Is Putin crazy enough to use ICBMs in such a war? No one knows but why take the chance. He is just crazy enough to do it in my opinion.

Finally, Trump has said Hitler did some good things!! He likes both Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban who is like a dictator in Hungary. He visit Kim in North Korea and for what reason? Know that there is now an agreement between North Korea and Russia. China is lying low while all this is going on but if a large conflict were to break out can we be certain that China will maintain its neutrality? I would not rely upon that.

Those of you who are Voting for Harris, thank you, but please talk to your neighbors and extended family members that a vote for Trump is a vote to end Democracy as we have know it. Trump has already said so.

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President Biden, PLEASE Step Aside


I voted for Pres. Biden in the 20202 elections, although in the primaries he was not my choice. We needed relief from the Trump disasters and he delivered us from that.

Pres. Biden continually points to his infrastructure bill when asked what he has done for the American people. For the America voter that gone and forgotten for the most part. Most people look at a President and ask, “what have you done for me lately?” And it is here that Pres. Biden fails.

Since he got his infrastructure bill passed he has been in a reactive mode. Most recently he sided with Isreal in the war that they are waging. He should have gotten a clue very early on when Israel opted to use missles to attack Hammas when it was even then well-known that Hammas was hiden underground in bunkers impervious to what was happening above. Pres. Biden’s move was to send out Sec. of Defense to Israel to implore them to use a ground war rather than the air war. But he did not and now we have close to 30,000 Palestians dead as a result of Israel’s actions.

Pres. Biden has been slow over the years since Russia attacked Ukraine to provide them with more than adequet support but he did not. At the first instance, when an air war was felt in Ukraine, his move was to bring Ukrainian Pilots to America to train them on the F-16 even before the Congress approved giving F-16s to Ukraine. They still do not have them. They are running out of ammunition, and knowing they have the upper hand, house Republicans are stalling his late actions at getting additional funding.

Biden does not resonate with the young people of the United States who voted for him in 2020. This means he cannot count on their support this time. They might just put a simple X in the empty box below the candidates. What he needs to do is to ask Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to take the lead in this election cycle and support him as our next President.

Our generation, baby boomers, are done. We are getting too old for public office. We need to allow the generations that followed us to take the reins of power. It is their world from here on out and not ours! If you do not want former Pres. Trump to win, then do what is best for the country and turn over the reins!

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It Is Time to End the Ukraine War!


Twenty months ago, Ukraine was invaded by a power purportedly much stronger than it. But as time has gone by, Ukrainians have risen to the cause and for the most part, held the Russians at bay.

Right now, the United States is the big dog on the block where the free world is concerned. But the United States seems to have abdicated its responsibilities when Ukraine is concerned going back to 2014. At the time of the Obama Administration, the Russian invasion of Crimea was a clear and present danger to the free people of Ukraine and, even more, to the rest of the world. Obama chose to do nothing.

During the Trump Administration, President Trump cozied up to Pres. Putin of Russia and put Ukraine in harm’s way by his ridiculous accusations towards that country. He said nothing when he knew the Russian propaganda machine was spouting its lies of Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis. Of course, with a Jewish president of the country, it was obvious to any thinking person that such was not the case.

And now we have to overly cautious Pres. Biden doing well with sending aid to Ukraine but failing by not having taken NATO to task and said that a large-scale land war was needed to resolve the conflict in a quick manner.

If the United States is to be the guardian of the free world, then it must act accordingly. And right now, there is not peace for the free world country of Ukraine. The problem of sending effective weapons systems to Ukraine was that Ukraine relied largely on Soviet built systems, rifles, aircraft, etc. The U.S. sent system to Ukraine and then had to see that Ukrainian soldiers were trained on these systems. That takes month in almost every case. And now it wants to send F-16 aircraft there, but it will take a full year to train pilots and their support crews. That is a year Ukraine does not have, even if it will be very effective in its future.

Ukraine has proven Russia to be little more than a paper tiger which unfortunately has a large cache of nuclear weapons. Sabre rattle as much as Putin enjoys, he knows full well that he is still in a position of Mutually Assured Self Destruction (MADD) with the United States. And even if he gave the order for his generals to unleash some of his battlefield nukes, it is unlikely the order would be followed as all military people are extremely aware of the consequences of such actions.

Right now, the United States has an entire division, the 101st Airborne, headquartered in Romania. Why? This was simply a defensive action against the possible expansion of Putin’s war. But it is the first time since the end of WW2 that the United States has had an entire division stationed anywhere in Europe. This means our government is extremely aware of the threat that Russia maintains.

As someone who served many years in the U.S. Army, I can tell you war is never as good as peace. But there is a war, and it has implications which extend far beyond Ukraine. There is Belarus which is entirely aligned with Russia, and which has allowed the Russian military to use its territory for its war against Ukraine.

It is time for the U.S. to announce to NATO and the world that it will now actively support Ukraine with its great air power. It will also send its fleet into the Black Sea as Russia has blockaded commerce, which is also a threat to the world, especially Africa. This type of military action does not invite battlefield nukes, but it will show Russia, China and North Korea, that we as a country grow weary of the evil they try to spread.

Russia does not have a large navy and can ill afford to lose any of its ships of war. And in an air war, the United States is clearly superior, and any large air conflict could very significantly reduce Russia’s ability to wage war in that manner.

Lest anyone doubt it, our military already has solid plans for just that sort of conflict, but it can do nothing without the President’s stamp of approval. We cannot go back and be like we were in 1940, isolationist. That is how we are acting right now because the President knows the American people do not have the stomach for another ground war. But an air and sea war are a different animal and a way for the United States to expel all Russian forces from all of Ukraine to include Crimea and the black sea.

That done, Ukraine’s entrance into NATO would be very easy.

And so, when it comes to world peace, who is the enemy of peace? To quote a very old comic, “we have met the enemy, and it is us.”

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NATO and Ukraine


When last I wrote of this war, I was of the opinion that NATO would be forced to support Ukraine or watch it fall to Russia. I was wrong. And for the small bit, I am grateful. But I am not in the least satisfied with NATO’s response, and, as its leading member, the response of the United States.

What I have seen of Russia’s army is that it is not well trained and lacking in good command and control on the battlefield. Some have suggested that Ukraine could win this war. It cannot. At least not on its own. Russia has been through this before in Chechnya and Afghanistan. They won the former while losing the latter. But in both cases, Russian was willing to take on the battle for years. This we must remember.

I have found President Biden’s response has been slow and lacking. I voted for Biden and considering the state of the world today, it was a good choice. Still, he lacks decisiveness. He has bungled the request of Ukraine to get MIG-29 jets from Poland. Everyone in power was in fear of Putin, and it showed! The simple answer to transferring those jets was to allow Ukrainian pilots to fly them home. There are only a handful and flying below radar should be easy for experienced pilots which Ukraine does have!

In the past, the United States has had no problem with getting military advisors secreted into combat areas. The claim that Ukrainian military lack training in anti-ship weapons is true but getting them trained would have been easily accomplished in the opening days of the war.

That the United States, and President Biden, continues the refrain of not wanting to escalate the war by making Putin angry is beyond the pale. Putin has been increasingly escalating this war without incurring similar response from Ukraine. That he has Sabre rattled about nuclear weapons is something our military is ready with a response, and Putin knows this! He has called our bluff and we have succumbed.

NATO and the United States needs to act boldly. They need to come to terms with adding Ukraine to NATO. Putin knows this is on the agenda but has called the West’s bluff by stating he would consider such an action as an escalation! Really? And most recently he has said that if Ukraine agrees to never join NATO, he might be willing to end the war. Of course, he has also said that Ukraine must cede more territory to Russia.

It is now established that China is unwilling to come to the rescue of Russia with military aid. It does, however, supply humanitarian aid. While in Ukraine, Russia has not allowed for humanitarian aid anywhere in Ukraine.

With things as they are now, President Biden and NATO have allowed things to progress to a point where giving Ukraine proper aid is greatly reduced. But there is a way around this that was employed a long time ago, the United Nations. During the Korean War, the troops fighting North Korea were declared UN troops, though the uniforms were those of the nations involved. Why have we not tried, at least, to use this to combat Putin and put an end to the hostilities?

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War In Europe?


I am calling upon my over 25 years of either being in the military and as a Federal Employee who worked closely with the U.S. Air Force. My active military service was entirely with the U.S. Army. When I first saw Russia invading Ukraine, I, like so many others, Putin included, felt this would be a short war with an ultimate Russian victory. It seems we underestimated the resolve of the Ukrainian people. It would also seem the Putin either has no sense of history or is ignorant of it. In 1940, the Soviet Union tried to invade Finland as it felt that country should naturally fall under Soviet control. They were wrong! In what is called “The Winter War,” the Finnish people initially defeated the Russian army which no one had expected. Finland only had what we today call a National Guard, no regular army troops. But as with Ukraine, the Soviet Union entirely underestimated the resolve of the Finns. Later, however, Russia did take over Finland.

I still think it unlikely that Ukraine will ultimately enjoy victory. The Russian army and its resources are just too vast. But one thing I have found surprising is the lack of command and control of the Russian forces. Command and control simply means how an army tactically attacks an enemy, First of all, Russia very poorly set up its logistics. That means how supplies are brought from its rear areas to its forward areas. This is an extremely important part of command and control. But it also shows how Russia has not allowed the ideas of modern warfare to exist within its military. That is, when I was in the military during the Soviet era, we knew that the Russian military was what is called “stove piped,” or that its military is ruled entirely from the very top straight down to its most elemental parts, the foot soldier. Soviet leadership did not allow for much in the way of command decision at the battalion level which in the American army is highly prized. This explains the sort of helter-skelter operation of the Russian military in Ukraine, the air forces do not talk to the army and the infantry does not talk to the artillery, etc.

This leads us to the situation presently in Ukraine. The city of Lviv has just endured its first attack by Russian missiles. Lviv is extremely close to the Polish border which we have all become acquainted with through news reports. But this also brings back the idea of command and control. Will the top Russian militarists know to stop at the Polish border lacking other information? Or will it simply continue onward until told to stop? Or is Putin already scheming to attack Poland and tell his people it was NATO’s aggression that forced his hand? No one knows the mind of Putin which is a scary thought. But our military, since the Korean Conflict, has made it a priority to “war game” with the idea of having a nearly fully formulated idea of how to proceed in the event of any military engagement. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of this, I suspect that NATO has been doing this as well.

That said, we are left with three basic possibilities of the Russian aggression. First, Russia defeats Ukraine and ceases its attacks. Second, Russia either invades Poland, which it dearly desires, or it invades the Baltic Countries, and a conventional war is started. The third, and scariest, is that Russia uses battlefield nuclear arms to succeed. That of course can easily lead to a nuclear war, something no one, including Russia wants. But this is where the sanity of Putin comes into play. Make no doubt about it, Putin’s office which is called a “Presidency,” is a convenient cover for the dictatorship he has evolved. Putin has for a long time acted unilaterally and has never had a fear of cutting off the heads, figuratively, of anyone who opposes him.

It is my belief that Putin is using Ukraine as a testing ground for what he truly wants, a return to the Soviet iron curtain countries of pre-1990. That would include Hungary, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and other countries. Our best hope is that he realizes that his military is hardly prepared to take on such a heady task and will stop with Ukraine. But if he does engage NATO, I have every confidence that NATO will reign supreme in the end and that Putin will be arrested and brought to task, with his sycophants, to answer for the war crimes he has committed. But once again, the face of the world will greatly change.

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Are We Headed For War?


George Santayana, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This haunting quote should be front and center in the United States today. But is it? I fear it is not, and that may exist at the highest part of our government.

As someone who is trained in U.S. History, I have in my knowledge the events which lead up to the U.S. involvement in World War 2. At that time the U.S. was very much of an isolationist stance among the general public. Those wars already in progress were so far away that there was no way we could, or should, have gotten involved. And yet we did!

Now I am not predicting a Pearl Harbor type situation arising. Fortunately, at the Pentagon level of current situations, the generals and admirals are always plotting a response to all perceived threats to the United States’ security. Europe, of course, is a high priority in that. But only 10 years ago, Russia was already starting a warlike stance. Our complete failure to realize Russia’s imperialistic adventurism allow Russia almost unfettered access to the Crimea which today is under Russian occupation. Former President Obama has admitted to that.

But first I need to go back over 30 years of military history. As was the case after the end of World War 1, the U.S. has steadily decreased it numbers of military servicemen. At first this was a good move. There were many no longer necessary military bases. The Vietnam War had ended, and our troop strength was greater than deemed necessary. I was still a part of the military at that time and saw this firsthand. In the early 1980s, the U.S. Army National Guard was in horrible shape. Many units were still using Korean War equipment. But a plan was afoot in our government to change that. In the ensuing years, the national guard was modernized and brought up to active military standards. But then the politicians turned on the military and started reducing the number and size of military units. For example, the 26th Infantry Division was decommissioned and changed to a brigade strength. That sort of action happened across the U.S. The entire Army National Guard has 336,000 troops today, along with 189,000 reservists backing up 481,000 active-duty personnel. With the exception of the Marine Corps, there has been a decline of about 40% troops strength since 1990! This should be alarming to all.

President Biden has repeated stated that the United States will not send in any troops to help defend the Ukraine. Is this the truth or just political speak? I think it is political speak because as I mentioned before, the Pentagon has for decades formed plans for all possible events.

It has been suggested by analysts that this Wednesday, February 16, 2022, Russia will invade the Ukraine! Is that a foregone conclusion? No! But it would be foolish to not prepare for such an eventuality. And if Russia does indeed invade, what will the U.S. due other than its threatened economic threats? All told, the Russian military has over 2.9 million troops while the Ukraine has 1.1 million. But Russia spends far more per soldier than does the Ukraine. That quite simply explains the U.S. sending military supplies to the Ukraine. In the eventuality that Russia does indeed invade the Ukraine at any date, what will the U.S. response be when the Ukraine asks NATO countries for troops? Can the U.S. and its allies simply say “no”? I do not think so but if we do, both sides are open to “unintended consequences.”

One possible unintended consequence is for Russia to use its nuclear capability on Eastern Europe. Russia fully understands the possible result of this and that is something called “MAD,” or Mutually Assured Destruction. A very appropriate acronym. I seriously doubt in that unintended consequence but the next is very much more likely and that is NATO powers and Russia and its allies being drawn into a full-scale war. Russia’s most important ally is China. China has 2.8 million troops! As much as I think it unlikely that China would respond to a Russian request for troops, it is certain not out of the realm of possibilities. And to put that into perspective, all of NATO has 2.2 million troops. The U.S. Army has 10 active military divisions which totals about 200,000 troops. But the U.S. has only once sent in all of its divisions, World War 2.

The point of all this is how tenuous our military strength is and how we have planned our defensive posture in Europe. Without U.S. and NATO intervention, Russia could easily overwhelm the Ukraine. And if that happens, what of the other Eastern European Countries, former Soviet Satellites? Even though we have some troops in each of these countries, we are hardly in a condition to properly respond militarily to any Russian provocation.

Finally, in addition to reconsidering the size of our military, the U.S. public needs to consider the possibility that Russia, under Putin’s dictatorship, is considering regaining control of Eastern Europe. The Ukraine may be nothing more than a ploy to test NATO’s response to its adventurism.

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The Future of America?


When March 2020 arrives, I will celebrate birthday number 71. I have seen a lot and traveled at lot during those years. I lived in three different countries, Korea, Italy and Micronesia, and been witness to their way of living. I have visited the Middle East, most of Western Europe to include Poland and the Czech Republic. I have also been to 44 of our 50 states. There was much to be seen and learned. I wish I could say I saw it all and learned to an expert level but that just is not true. But what I did see and learn was uniformity.

It did not matter what country I visited, Korea, Syria, or any state, everyone is about the same. Those people I met, Palestinians, Cypriots, Marshallese, each was friendly and welcoming. And so my takeaway from this is that it did not matter what country I was in, people are not political parties, religions, rich or poor, they are just people who are making their way through life in their own particular way. I never expected people to speak English. I always believed the language barrier was mine to be broken down and that usually worked. And those times when the other person did speak English, well, that was a bonus of which I always was grateful.

One thing which was common to almost all the people I visited was they were very nice but hamstrung by the governments which claimed to represent them. I seldom found that to be the truth. I visited Syria, for example, in 1972. That was only five years removed from the 7-days war Israel fought which brought extreme fear and unrest to the entirety of the middle-east. But walking among the people, you would not know that. In Syria, a country which at the time had no U.S. Embassy, the fact that I was American, something that was known when I crossed the border from Lebanon to Syria, seemed of little or no consequence to the military who controlled the border crossings. And once we reach Damascus, the entire bus of people I was with was treated with great warmth and to my surprise, the tour was done in English. There, at the Central Mosque, I learned that in Islam it is believe the head of John the Baptist lies in that Mosque and he is considered a prophet in their religion. And soldiers visiting the golden cage at the spot where the head lies, kneeled and cried before moving to a corner of the Mosque which faced Mecca where they prayed.

Today, when I think of a country, I never think about its government but of its people because they are the true representatives of their country, not their elected officials.

America today is in the most unfortunate position of having a President who has shown no appreciation for the absolute necessity of America getting along with the rest of the world. Worse, it appears this President has taken America backwards and into a 2nd Cold War. When you deal with the devil, as is the case with Putin in Russia and Kim Il in North Korea, it is necessary to present yourself as the protector of those countries they would seek war, to include America itself.

During his years as President, Barrack Obama made serious in-roads in diplomacy with Iran. That was extremely important for peace in the Middle-East and has since been undone by the present administration. When Russia invaded the Crimea, the present President offered no help to the Ukrainian government to stem that incursion. To Russia, that was not a test of the Ukrainian military but of the resolve of the rest of the world, America in particular, to intervene against an illegal act and yet no one did anything. Now Putin knows he can retake former USSR territories with impunity. Are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next? Or is he setting his sights on Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the other former USSR satellites of that region?

The United States has in place rules for countries where corruption is an issue which can limit or completely withhold U.S. aid to such countries. But what if they become targets of the Russian government. Do we stand by and watch it happen or do we form a coalition to stem any such incursion? Remember now, in even the most corrupt nation, the average person is honest and hard working and deserving of protection of his freedom. Right now, America is not that country and what a shame that is.

Over the past three years, America has acted shamefully towards the rest of the world. Its isolationist policy, its arrogance, and its ignorance, in the form of its lack of action, of issues problematic to most of the world, makes America a country upon which the rest of the world cannot rely. Is this who we really want to be? We desperately need a leader who has a healthy respect for the power of good diplomacy and a diplomatic policy the rest of the world will once again respect. We need a new President.

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A Year in Korea — Leaving and an Epilogue


When I arrived in Korea I was extremely naïve about the workings of the world. But as my time to depart approached, I had grown, I had matured, I had learned.

By June 1969 I had been promoted four times by the Army, the most any soldier could be promoted. When I entered the army, my monthly pay was $102.30 per month, and when I left I was earning the grand sum of $254.70. That is not a typo, per month is correct. An army captain in 1969 received exactly $466.20 per month. No one went into the military to get rich. But most of us were extremely proud to have served. And when our time came to leave the military, we were extremely happy to go. I refer to those years as “crazy days.”

This is an example of how things got crazy. A couple of months before I was scheduled to leave Korea, a buddy of mine was supposed to leave. But on the specified day of departure, he was nowhere to be found. It turned out he was shacking up with his Korean girlfriend. He was almost literally dragged back to Camp Coiner and informed he would leave the country either voluntarily or under guard. He left under guard. I cannot say I understand his actions but I can assure you that his level of insanity was no greater than a thousand other guys who did crazy things.

An incident I heard about went like this. A guy was driving a 2½ ton truck through a Korean village. Every GI has witnessed at one time or another mamma-san walking out in front of traffic and simply raise he hand as if to magically stop traffic. She was usually successful but when it comes to a deuce and a half, what we called that type of truck, you need a little more room to stop. Mamma-san was killed. The military police were quickly called to the scene and before the Korean government could react, he was spirited out of the country and out of the reach of the Korean police. The Korean government most likely protested the incident but they were certainly aware of mamma-san’s actions and the inevitability of what happened. It was a terrible accident which happened too many times, but it was tragic, not criminal.

I also heard of other guys, not so lucky, who got drunk and drove a military vehicle through a rice patty. Rice is of course a staple of the Korean diet and the farmers, poverty stricken, could ill-afford to lose any of their planted rice. The GI in question was forced to pay the damages, or so I was told but knowing how thing went over there, there is little reason to doubt it.

The fall of 1969 was quiet for me. Word came down that I would depart Korea on December 20, 1969. The last day for soldiers to leave the country. December 20th was a very early day. Those of us who were leaving, I think there were five from my unit, had to be at Kimpo International Airport by 6AM for a 9AM flight out of Korea. We would board one of the big “red tails.” We called those airplanes that because Northwest Orient Airlines painted their tails red and the military used them almost exclusively to ferry troops between the U.S. and Korea.

We all checked in with the Air Force Military Airlift Command desk where we were checked against a roster. That done, we had only to wait. But on this day all did not go as planned. Somehow the five or so of us from Stratcom were told the flight had been overbooked and we would not be leaving that day. We all knew that meant we would have to stay another month. One of us, however, was a sergeant major. A sergeant major is the highest rank an enlisted man can gain and he is usually assigned to a battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel or to a brigade commander, a colonel. Our sergeant major went one better. He was part of a general’s staff and he did not take kindly to the news. He told us to wait and he would take care of things.

We heard him tell the desk sergeant he wanted to speak to his commander immediately. We were shuffled away and did not see the sergeant major for another 2 hours at least. I remember when 9:15AM rolled around we all watched forlornly as the Northwest Boeing 707 left the gate and departed. We were certain all was lost. But a little while later the sergeant major returned and informed us that we were going to leave on a 1:15PM flight that day. No one asked him how he did it, we just thanked him profusely. And so at 1:15PM our 707 left the gate with all aboard. We first flew to Tokyo where we changed planes. It was just a two-hour flight and the change in flight was quick. Our next leg took us from Tokyo to Anchorage Alaska, a 14-hour flight. We arrived in Anchorage at 7:30AM on December 20th. We arrived in Anchorage 5½ hours before we left Korea. The International Date Line came into play of course. Ironically, we boarded another aircraft in Anchorage at 1:15PM on December 20th. I can claim to have taken off from two different airports, thousands of miles apart, at the same time, day and year.

The flight took us to Seattle, a four-hour flight if memory serves properly. But before leaving Anchorage we got to see the sun rise at about 11AM and set just before we took off. From Seattle Tacoma International airport I had to catch a cab to Fort Lewis when I would be usher out of the army. In 1969, December 20th fell on a Saturday which meant the personnel office at Fort Lewis was minimally manned. All I wanted to do was to get my final separation orders, my pay, and an airline ticket home. The personnel people were in no particular rush for me, I was alone, and so I had to cajole them into getting the job done and not make me wait until the next day or Monday. They came through.

I then caught another cab back to Seattle Tacoma airport. I was in my dress uniform, a requirement for members of the military back then when traveling on military orders. As I was about to enter the airport I saw a girl sitting next to the door in hippie style dress. She took one look at me, spit at me and said, “baby killer.” In just a year things had changed so much. I left one war zone and returned to another. The military was not very highly though of by many in the civilian populace and I had just gotten a taste of it.

But I was tired, really tired. I had not been able to sleep much on the airplane from Japan to Alaska even though it was mostly empty and I could sprawl across the three seats where I was situated. And the flight from Alaska offered no respite either. By this time, it must have been about 10PM because I remember having to rush to the United Airlines ticket counter to get checked in. Once I arrived there, however, I was informed there we no more seats available. I must have looked pretty bedraggled and crushed because the woman behind the counter asked, “are you returning from overseas?” Of course, I answered yes even though I knew she thought I was coming from Vietnam. She handed me a first-class ticket and told me to rush to the gate. She gave me an extremely nice “welcome home” before I left.

By the time I got back to North Andover, Massachusetts, it was late morning December 21, 1969, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep eluded me, however. I was probably over-tired. I did sleep a little but nothing close to 8 hours. Still, home never looked so good.

Just a little over a month later, on January 24, 1970, my father died from his 3rd heart attack. My mother told me, “he was waiting for you to come home.” I was crushed, to say the least.

I had enrolled at Merrimack College, just a mile from home. But my heart was not in it. And towards the end of the semester everyone was going on strike. Merrimack called off its commencement because of the student strike. Similar things were happening all over the country. In July I headed out to Oklahoma to learn to fly. I was days away from getting my license when I was in a horrible accident. Aside from a few stiches in my head and an empty wallet, I was all right. But my mother had called me out there asking why the army was looking for me. You see, as someone who had only spent two years on active duty, I was supposed to attended army reserve meeting monthly for two years. I never went to a single one. I knew why they were calling and so I went to the recruiter in Lawrence Massachusetts and re-enlisted.

When I arrived at Fort Dix New Jersey, I was put in one of two barracks which were full of other soldiers, airmen, and sailors who had also not met their obligation. While there, however, I ran into a high school classmate, Doug Middleton. Doug was returning from Vietnam and heading out for Germany. I was heading for Italy. By 1976, Doug had driven to a remote spot in Maine and ate his gun. Vietnam claimed another. Ten years later, another classmate, Jimmy Cippola, was found dead from a heart attack. He had told me how while in Vietnam he had endured countless agent orange sprayings. Jimmy returned from Vietnam full of demons, horrible nightmares. And so Vietnam claimed yet another.

It was the early 1990s before the American public began to thank veterans for their service. Towns organized parades to honor Vietnam vets. Even though I was just a Vietnam era vet, I was asked to March in uniform in a parade in Andover Massachusetts, which I did. Finally someone said thank you.