The Price of Participation

Most recently, I've been heavily involved in a series of editorials that began with a focus on Draft Dodgers who evaded service during the Vietnam War.

The comments have been all over the place but generally speaking, they all agreed on one thing. That agreement surrounded and focused on the concept of "Character". Whether you agree or not, there can not be much doubt about the reality of a final decision to run and hide instead of answering a call to arms from your Country.

Any way you look at it, the end result was specific and easy to identify. They left the United States to avoid the draft. Even though amnesty was eventually granted, amnesty only protected them from prosecution. It did not remove the decision they knowingly made "not" to support their Country when the call to arms came.

Big Brother joined and served his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Marine Corp. I was drafted but got with the program and ended up flying helicopters as a Warrant Officer in the US Army.

Mark, one of the editorial contributors who also served as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war, introduced facts about a Conscientious Objector (CO) that was right on the money. The CO was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service as a medic. The point Mark wanted to make about this man surrounded his objection to killing another human being but, in spite of that, he made a choice to serve his Country in another area of support. He served despite his objection and he decided to do so instead of deciding to run and hide in Canada.

This disclosure brought up the subject of "Character". There were a number of statements made about character building and how important that is to leadership.

As the editorials continued to come in, more and more points were made regarding the difference in character between those that chose to serve and those who ran away. I found it very interesting to see so many Veterans deliver such a wide and varied opinion about something that was so sensitive to most Vietnam Vets. Once again, Big Brother's influences surfaced.

Not long ago, he and I had a discussion about the Vietnamese who had come to the United States after the war ended. During those discussions, I told him about a loan application I made to the SBA for a loan to fund inventory purchases for a fledgling industrial supply company I owned at the time.

When the loan was rejected by the local SBA authority, I was told it was due to funds that were already committed for use to purchase fishing boats for the Vietnamese Boat People. This effected me for years and set forth an attitude on my part that have never changed much. I simply could not accept that they could have a priority over any Vietnam Veteran. I still don't agree with the use of our taxes in certain areas and in fact, believe that we should have a larger influence in matters of this kind.

In any event, Leland and I both agreed that neither of us harbor any hate or even resentment for the Vietnamese Boat People. Tim Jr even threw in on that one as he worked with a wonderful Vietnamese woman at a restaurant in Baton Rouge when he was at LSU. She was from Nha Be, an area where many of my 11th Cav and 199th buddies had flown over and done recon work for. It's just on the south side of Saigon and used to be a Japanese Navy base and airfield that was used during the Second World War.

Having established that there wasn't a prejudicial bone in our bodies or in the hearts of most of the guys I flew and served with, we concluded that character is a very important part of the quality of citizens in our Country. With that, the editorial continued.

I began to research the character of men who proved to be such fine leaders of our Country. I began with George Washington and the American Revolution and moved forward. Some quotations of note surfaced during the research phase of that and many great quotes were listed. "Walk softly but carry a big stick" came from Teddy Roosevelt. I researched it and found that it was directed toward the Monroe Doctrine.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself" came from FDR during the Second World War and, as the quotes continued to surface, I found "Ask not what your Country can do for you, ask what you can do for your Country".

In any event, over time, we've had some really great leaders who possessed really good character.

Having said all of this, I want you to know that I decided to continue with the research and submit character examples to the web site of the Air Cav Troop where all this began. As I moved along and received a number of personal emails wondering if I was okay or wondering why it had been so long since I posted my comments here, I decided to continue with the comments on this blog and simply ask Curt to copy the comments and post them on my behalf to the Air Cav Troop site. Let's just say that I'm either too stupid or too lazy to do the copy and paste maneuver and do it myself. Sticking to this thought process at least allows them to edit my thoughts before not after, it is posted on the Cav site.

Please let me know if you are interested in me doing this here instead of remaining off the Church of What's Happenin' Now and focusing more on the Air Cav Troop site. Thanks. Tim