Reply #14: A friend of mine has been in the VA psycho ward for years [View All]

[Elwood P Dowd]

His best friend and a little Vietnamese girl were blown to bits right in front of his jeep. He has been in la-la land ever since.

There was a guy from my Army basic training unit that came back from 'Nam so whacked out that he walked around talking to himself all the time.

A high school classmate of mine died a few years ago from complications caused by Agent Orange. Another came back and never could adjust. He blew his brains out.

Me, I got lucky and was assigned a duty station in the states. One day I went over to Walter Reed to visit someone. This was 1971 when I was assigned to a unit in Washington. If every American could have visited that place in 1971, they would have listened to John Kerry and the Vietnam Vets against the war. That shit would have stopped right then and there. When the big demonstrations were held in April of 1971, I was there Friday night through Sunday. I went back to my Army duty on Monday morning as the Park Police and military were beating up the demonstrators. Even though I never served in Vietnam, I saw a part of America that made me sick at my stomach. We're still witnessing the results of those policies today, just like we will pay the price of Iraq for decades to come.