An America I was reminded about today

Today I met a dinosaur. Irish Catholic, native New Yorker, thick, thick accent. A Vietnam veteran, three tours of duty, infantry division, a grunt, a purple heart recepient, son of a World War II veteran, son of an Irish Catholic mother, also a native New Yorker. It was like listening to a Father Flannigan speech. In fact his father and mother took him to Church one day, made him listen to the Priests sermon (written for him and delivered in English), and after the service, his father pulled him aside and said 'Son quit f*ckin' around...enlist tomorrow for four years, it can't hurt. Next day he dutifully listened to his father's last
advice, kissed his mother goodbye.... and headed for basic training via Fort Hood (anybody remember Fort Hood).

He made it through Vietnam, managed to keep his sense of humor and his life. He came back to the states, back to the bronx, became a security specialist for corporate executives, put in his 40, retired and right at this very moment he's headed to the Super Bowl. Told me he had to be in line four (4) hours before kickoff for security reasons....he figured that was a good thing for everyone.

Back then, before this story, he and I both were headed to Vietnam (1972), me by way of an ROTC scholarship and my paybacks, him by way of his fathers right foot his Irish temper, and that of his mothers equally displaced temperament of love and family tradition to service of ones country.
He wasn't making a point, he wasn't asking for a thank you. It just came out in the conversation while we were wishing him a safe flight. 'Hey, I don't fly the plane, I'm just in it.'

He related one quick story....midnight he was pulled from his bunk, told to 'form a line'...pointed to a plane and later told he was now in Cambodia. 600 men were deployed in what was, at that time, not a safe place for those men who questioned orders or Sergeants. 200 men, he related, flew back out of Cambodia a week later....he said his Thank yous to God, got an R&R ticket home to the states, spent two months finishing the hitch at home.... then re upped for his 3rd tour. Said "he owed it to the men he walked over"....(as in the dead). True story told by a true hero I met during the course of a handshake.

So I listen to today's men, today's children, today's political posturing, and today's whiny disgusting bleeding heart liberals, throwing rocks from their safe spaces, their mealy mouth opinions that have not one ounce of truth or conviction, just Hate. Rocks thrown from behind computer walls, men and women not fit to share this space via these words...well, it's something he reminded me of as I listened. Something I forgot...... But that I won't begin to share with you.....you're not entitled.