Seems like only yesterday...

[cebeu]

Vietnam celebrates 35th anniversary of war's end
SOURCE: AP, 4/30/10

While I was just a youngster, I remember "the end" vividly, as if it were only yesterday. TV images capturing the fall of Saigon, the last chopper rescues carrying refugees and Americans out of harms way...

I remember the hollowness I felt, even as a child, having come from a multi-generational military family (to include immediate family - the war was "very real" for us) I had a hard time understanding and accepting what felt like "a loss" in my house, that "stink" lingered for a long-time, I still smell it occasionally to this day.

Here's to the soldiers and hero's of that time, and to my dad; "thank you!"

[BigBear]

My dad had a friend (rest his soul) who was a tunnel rat in 'Nam. Some of the stories he would tell would chill you to the bone. He used to always keep the windows open for the breeze because he could swear that he "could still smell the burning flesh of those (racial slur)... we needed more napalm."

True American heroes RIP.

[Hoosier]

I wasn't alive then. To someone who was, why did we lose it? Was it that we didn't commit sufficient forces and hamstrung the ones we did commit preventing them from doing things like bombing the enemy capital?

My aunt and uncle met in Vietnam -- the only other gun owners in my family.

H.

[BigBear]

I wasn't alive then. To someone who was, why did we lose it? Was it that we didn't commit sufficient forces and hamstrung the ones we did commit preventing them from doing things like bombing the enemy capital?

My aunt and uncle met in Vietnam -- the only other gun owners in my family.

H.

There's a whole war to open up with those questions. Some claim we won, others that we lost.

Cheesy site with lots of pop-ups, but decent "unbiased" info that can help explain some of it: http://www.vietnam-war.0catch.com/ WIKIpedia also has some good info.

[Mtn.man]

Was a sadtime. We were not welcome at home and not there either.
We did nothing to win over the people till it was too late. And the damn hippies here sucked ass.

Wach on the History Channel and the Military Channel comes on alot probably more than 12 hurs of footage interviews dialogue etc.

[Ridge]

Maybe this is why Rambo First Blood and PtII have been playing on AMC all week...

[jake]

My dad had a friend (rest his soul) who was a tunnel rat in 'Nam. Some of the stories he would tell would chill you to the bone. He used to always keep the windows open for the breeze because he could swear that he "could still smell the burning flesh of those (racial slur)... we needed more napalm."

True American heroes RIP.

Seconded. One of my favorite books about the war is The Tunnels of Cu Chi. Just reading about what the tunnel rats faced when they would go into a tunnel is frightening.