gizzard

That truly is a moving story. Hope that it is true. When i was at the Wall on the 10th, I got to meet some of our present day service men. Just informally, and sort of at random. The one thing struck me was HOW DAMN YOUNG they are. I stood at the wall for a bit by a young PFC. He turned and I guess from my beret and all he recognized I was a vet, and he said, with a hint of a tear\" This is certainly moving.\" I patted him on the shoulder, shook his hand, and said\"Thank you for what you are doing now.\" He answered,\" Thank you, sir,for what you did before.\" I know a lot of you guys out there have sons and daughters in the military, and if they are anything like some of the ones I have met, oh say for over the past year, you have every right to be proud of them. Maybe someday, there will not be any stories like the one in this posting, but until then, guys, I think we are protected well. Let\'s not forget them when THEY come home! Load clear

To RoyN, glad to hear you were there, too. i am sure there were many herk people in that parade. I got to thinkin\', that will probably be the last time there will be that many Nam vets in one place. Kinda sad, in a way, I guess, but when you consider that there are about 1100 WWII guys passin\' on each day, we ain\'t far behind, and with much fewer numbers. To Col, well now the kid is doin\' fine, she is now deliverin\' babies in Asheville, NC. She says she is more of a hillbilly than a western Mountain person.Wondewr where she got that from:cheer: Aboard, closed and checked P.

To all you who served in the Vietnam War and the era for that matter, yesterday I was in the parade marking the 25th anniversary of the wall. I know that there are thousands out there who flew the missions, repaired our birds so we could fly, fueled them up, operated the control towers and navcom equipment, rigged up the airdrop loads, cooked food for us,made sure our mail and our pay was taken care of, walked the airfield perimeters with your dogs to protect our planes, cared for us when we were sick, and, Yes, when sometimes we got hurt, crewed the crash rigs and the rescue chooppers, and every other activity that was needed to keep us flying. For all of you, still here. and for those who have passed on, I was honored to consider myself on of your representatives, there, in DC yesterday. I am sure there were more, and to all let me say \" Welcome home.\" Paul E. Parish, Loadmaster 36 TAS

Thanks for the complete info on this young man. He was born and raised just up the road here from me. Sorry to hear of such a loss for such a sorry reason. I don\'t ride a motorcycle why??:(