Vets still ache for faithful friends left behind

[douglas9]

BEAUMONT — Rusty Allen and Randy Kimler came home from Vietnam with medals and commendations.

Sig and Prinz, German shepherd scout dogs who saved dozens of lives, were rewarded for their years of service with a death sentence.

When their bodies no longer could endure the heat, humidity and diseases of the jungles, the dogs were discarded by the U.S. military as unwanted pieces of damaged equipment. Feelings of betrayal about the Vietnam War and the lack of support from many Americans run deep in the men and women who served there.

Few wounds cut deeper or heal slower than the sense of frustration, guilt and loss the dog handlers feel when they talk about leaving the canine partners who trusted them behind.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5713770.html

[TahitiNut]

1. It's OK ... of 2.7 million of us, fewer than 1 million are still alive.

It won't be long before we're dead. Some folks have even expressed impatience for that day. Then, and probably only then, folks will create some false mythos for self-serving purposes and salve their vestigial consciences. It's much easier to do when listening to the veterans is no longer needed.

:shrug: