EVERYONE HAD THEIR OWN REASONS FOR WHY THEY FOUGHT

Some will fight for their country
Some have fought to right a wrong
Some were mercenaries for hire

Every nation on earth has some
And they all have their reasons
That they would risk life & limb

Some are highly educated in tactics
Some were experts with all weapons
Some were just looking for adventure

Some had all of the right intentions
Some had no principles what-so-ever
Some had Integrity and Honor as well

Of all the different types I have seen
American, Australian & British were best
They have always showed their compassion

Yes they were fighting a war and dying
But they helped the innocent civilians
We had this soft spot for these orphans

They would give away their last rations
And do what they could for these people
Those caught up in the middle of the war

The main thing that kept me going there
Was the looks of despair in the kids eyes
They'd lost everyone they knew in life

Though many people then and even still today
Never really knew the reasons or the facts
They easily condemned those of us who served

They just saw the fighting on their TV sets
They swallowed the propaganda of the media
They took it all in hook, line and sinker

They turned on these young kids who fought
With their screaming chants and protesting
They did more damage to them than the enemy

They acted like a lynching party out for blood
Their misguided attacks on those returning home
Caused us more damage than Post Traumatic Stress

I try to always remember the lives I helped save
Especially the innocent children left orphaned
We took care of them, fed them and clothed them

We wrote home and asked our hometowns to help us
They sent canned food, clothes and toys for them
We showed them compassion and we gave them hope

Something we never received from our own citizens
We were called butchers, rapists and murders too
We received more wounds at home than in battles

And here we are almost 49 years later in our lives
And we are facing the possibilities of a slow death
From the deadly chemicals used by our own government

The Agent Orange was suppose to help save our lives
By killing that jungle vegetation where the VC hid
Eliminating their ability to sneak up on our bases

Many are now crippled and many have died from this
As if this weren't bad enough for us all to face
We still hear the old chants from some here still



© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.








Today we are starting to see a slow change in the way that many now
look at those of us who had served in Vietnam, it's very encouraging
to many of us who have survived this long. But there are a few very
disturbed individuals that many of us know well here who persist in
verbally attacking us here for having served our nation proudly and
with Integrity & Honor and who had shown compassion for those people
there who desperately needed our help. I have been called many names
and I've had one or two here who have told me that I should to go do
things to myself that I believe are physically impossible to actually
do to ones own self, and with such statements have shown me just how
twisted and demented these few really are in their own personal lives.
I saw a sign while up in Saigon, it said "Never was a man so tall, as
when he stooped down to help a child".  I've been asked many times by
people who wanted to know how could I live with myself knowing what I
did while serving in Vietnam?  These questions and statements seem to
always come from those people who had never served in Vietnam or who'd
never fought defending freedom in the world during any war or conflict
and it seems very strange and odd to me, because they made it sound as
though they had been there and had witnessed me or my brothers in arms
doing those things they condemned us for having done there. So I just
tell them that God and I know what I did or didn't do in Vietnam, and
how hard we had tried to help save the innocent victims who had been
targets of the VC. And I tell them that it has been very easy for me
to live with myself since I had served over there. Sure I still have
nightmares to this day, but they are not because of anything that we
had done wrong over there, it's because of the fact that while I was
there I had not been able to save other orphans, and that fact still
haunts me yet. I am proud that I served in the Vietnam War and I can
tell you that I still stand tall to this day because of the fact that
I did serve there and did my best to do what I could to help out the
South Vietnamese defend their freedom.

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