BETTER DAYS AND THE RANDOM MOMENTS THAT INSPIRE THEM

We had a table discussion about historic moments that led to better days. Four adults, three of whom don’t like things called table discussion. Me: But we’re at the table.

One in the group gave their version of a history and moved on. But another in the group made a correction. The rest of group favored moving on.

The talk concerned the Vietnam War-era draft. Me: If anyone asks you about the Vietnam War, tell them this.

Chorus: Here we go.

No one looked forward to better days after being drafted. Was it different for those who volunteered for Vietnam?

I rolled out the time line of France, Japan, then France again after WWII and how America got started after Dien Bien Phu.

Beginning in 1949, the Viet Minh fought an increasingly effective guerrilla war against France with military and economic assistance from newly Communist China. France received military aid from the United States.

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By 1975 America decided it had had enough of Vietnam. For some it never ended with the reminders they brought back, or didn’t bring back. The missing leg, two missing legs, the rattled brain, the chronic health problems after Agent Orange.

But, the war was a career booster for fast-track officers who needed a combat command to qualify for their next step to becoming a general in charge of everything.

2nd Lts straight out of school, or OCS, showed up academically strong to lead draftees with more experience In-country. If the officer survived the failures of his book-learned tactics, and not get fragged, they got their ticket punched and moved up, making room for the next green Lt.

For all of the sordid machinations of war organizing, deciding who was and wasn’t expendable, the end was a mess of people trying to catch the last helicopter out of Saigon.

In spite of all the ugliness, the VA tidies it all up with:

In the US, increased casualties and higher taxes to support the war lead to great public dissatisfaction and a growing anti-war movement.

At least they didn’t say, “anti-war sentiment.”

Country Joe added this:

Well, come on all of you, big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again. He’s got himself in a terrible jam way down yonder in Vietnam. So put down your books and pick up a gun, we’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.

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One draft-aged man used student deferments to avoid getting swept up. From undergrad to graduate school, he kept going. The guy went so far with the deferments that he ended up with a PhD in bug science, entomology. Smart guy.

Then he got drafted. And sent to Vietnam. And he was pissed. He’s still pissed.

What’s a bug man do in Vietnam? A doctor of bug science? First they bitch about being a captain with a PhD when guys with masters degrees came in as captains.

Their real job was securing areas for future fire bases, which meant surveying the field for bugs, then flying over with chemicals to kill those particular bugs.

One of the banes of tropical warfare is malaria. In an effort to control the incidence of malaria in US ground troops in Vietnam, the military initiated Operation Flyswatter (Cecil and Young, 2008). That program, which began in 1967, used modified Ranch Hand C-123 aircraft, also known as Bug Birds, to spray malathion. Unlike the C-123s used for herbicide spraying, the Bug Birds flew alone without escort aircraft and were not camouflaged.

“Did you ever get shot at when you flew so low?”

“All the time.”

“What did you do?”

“Flew higher.”

“Did the bug spray work when you flew higher?”

“No as well, but the job was going up with a load, dumping it, and coming back. We always came back empty.”

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Better days depend on making this day better. If not for yourself, then someone else.

No one makes any day better by shooting people dead, people going about their regular covid pandemic lives, making vaccination appointments, washing their hands, wearing a mask, and using social distance. And getting shot dead?

A POS on a bad day with an AR-15 never makes anything better. Making it worse are the ‘thoughts and prayers’ 2nd amendment people buying into ‘the price of freedom.’

The price of freedom has nothing to so with jackasses fueled by low self esteem carrying.

Better days for all means preventing poor mental health people from acting out before they get straightened out.

Think of the jerkiest of jerks you’ve ever known, someone without the brains to pour pee out of a boot with the directions on the heel. Give them an AR-15 and a talk resembling the pepper the insurrectionists heard before moving up to the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

That was not a well regulated militia, pal, not law and order obedients supporting blue. Who they were comes out with every arrest and every soulfully sorrow apology, every finger pointing tearful blame, and every complaint about being held behind bars when others get released.

I hear them, see them, and their whole presentation seems to still ask, “What’d I do wrong? Huh? What?”

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Better days don’t usually include jail.

I talked to a man who had done time. He said the worst sound he ever heard was the prison door slamming behind him. He didn’t know any prison jokes. If he did, he wasn’t saying.

The one prison joke that keeps me on the straight and narrow:

A man is found guilty of a crime and sentenced to prison. He’s processed in and led to his jail cell where he meets his new roommate.

“Welcome aboard, rookie. We do things here like anyplace else, starting with playing house. You like to play house?”

“Playing house?”

“That’s right, playing house. Let’s start with do want to be the Mommie or the Daddy.”

“I’ll be the Dad.”

“Okay, daddy, now come over here and meet Mommie’s junk.”

Make better days starting now.

Comments welcome.