My father would never talk about WWII either..until 30 years later.

It was such an awful time. I grew up in a factory town in Michigan and few kids went to college so many of my high school friends were drafted and killed in Nam..I also remember in college the night they did the lottery drawing and 2 young men had their numbers pulled..Everyone got drunk but I know I did not fully understand what was going on.

Oh, no way is the treatment of the returning vets justified. I think a lot of it began as frustration over our government not having the will to actually win the war. Of course, the soldiers unjustly became a target of that frustration.

I have never talked to a single vet that thought the war was unwinnable. And then you see the domino effect after we pulled out of the area. Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia was, IMO, a direct result of our withdrawal.

Several of my Uncles served in WWII, one never came back (a paratrooper) died in the invasion of Normandy, one was a in the Death March and was a Japanese Prisionor of War. He never talked of it either.

My mentor's husband served in the Pacific as a gunner on fighter plane. Over the last 10 years he's begun to talk about it. But, only after my husband started organizing all his Vet papers, medals and photos into albums and shadow boxes.

Yep! Had the government allowed them to fight the war to win, let the Generals run the war....I think it would have been won.

I see that happening today. Although, we've come a long way and are treating our returning military with respect they deserve.

My Dad was a radio operator/waist gunner on a B-17. He was shot down by a German ME-262 jet fighter and was the only survivor. He actually met the pilot that shot his plane down and had no animosity towards him. They had enough sense to know that both of them were just two guys caught up doing their country's bidding, same as everyone else was.

My father was a navy pilot who received the Distinquished Flying Cross (I actually have the picture of him receiving it) during the invasion of Italy. He has been written about in books and right before he was killed (a tractor accident at 75) he had been contacted to help write a book on the Solomon Island battle. My father requested to be buried in Arlington National Cemetary because he wanted to keep his eyes on the bastards in Washington (his words) and because he always felt the most alive during the war. The service was extremely moving (he got a full military burial) and it is/was very moving to look at all of the crosses and understand how many men died for our country. I am extremely proud of my father and his military service.

It was interesting though that it took him 30 some years to talk about the war but luckily I have a great deal of information written down from him and I have researched a great deal. Dad would go back to Pensacola every 5 years for a complete physical at the expense of the Navy for the rest of his life. I don't know if he was part of a study based on what happened in the war or not..but I do know he loved going back.. I also do know he became much more open as the years past to talk about much of it. I feel very strongly about understanding all of it and am in contact with children of other men who served on the USS Boise.

Wasn't there something, not too long ago, where American Soldiers met with Viet Nam soldiers?

There was a show where WWII vets met with the Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima I believe.

Saw that one.

I seem to remember something about that. I remember a recent story about a soldier's remains being found in Laos. There's so many MIAs to this day and I think it was the search for them that led to a thawing of relations. Do you remember Ross Perot financing missions in the 70's to find POWs still being held?

On a side note, we have a large Vietnamese community here on the Coast. They came over in the mid 70's and there was a lot of animosity towards them, even though they were South Vietnamese. Things have settled down since then and they have assimilated well and are now as accepted here as any other group.

double post

Here is my Dad and the men of the USS Boise. My Dad is standing on the left hand side.

I know that there is a large community here in Orange County, The City of Westminster. The off-ramp off the 405 freeway use to have a sign identifying it as Little Siagon. There's also a large population of Vietnamese in the Houston, Texas area.

Great Pic.