I flew in the US Air Force for eight years during the Vietnam era...

[Jack-o-Lantern]

We flew huge C-141 Starlifter cargo jets between the US and southeast Asia.
We carried supplies and munitions eastbound, but not westbound.
There is a huge US hospital/mortuary in Yokota Japan where the injured and dead service people were flown from Vietnam to the Yokota facility.

The dead were processed there and placed in hermetical sealed aluminum coffins (called human remains transfer cases). The C-141 carried ten cargo pallets, each pallet was loaded with eight HRTC’s, so each westbound flight carried 80 bodies.

During the long overwater flights I would I step down into the cargo bay and read… you see each case was equipped with container holding the paperwork accompanying the remains. The paperwork indicated the name, age, hometown, next of kin, cause of death, and whether the remains were viewable or not. The average age of the deceased was 19 years old.
Those who were from the western states were unloaded at the Travis AFB California mortuary, and those from the eastern states were unloaded at Dover AFB Delaware.

I flew two or three SEA runs every month, with many more aircraft making these same depressing SEA runs…no flags draped over the cases, no honor guards meeting the planes, the pallets were simply rolled onto flatbed K-loaders and driven away.

On other occasions the aircraft was reconfigured into a flying fully staffed med-evac hospital.

These flights were loaded with litters, two high down the cargo bay accompanied by two doctors, three nurses and an array of medical machines. Some injuries were moderate while others were horribly wounded, paralyzed, burned, amputees etc.

Now am proud of my service, but ashamed of the waste, and the futility of that war (as is true of most wars).

The point of this story is the red hot rage and loathing I harbor toward the bloated stinking piece of shit who calls these people, my people, and the others who have served our country over the years “SUCKERS and LOSERS”!

I will not rest until this putrid orange monster lies rotting in the ground, food for worms and maggots! That will be one hell of a happy day.

…and so it goes.