The Corner of Black Eye Blvd and F*** You Freeway.

Have you ever reached a point in your life where you were stopped in your tracks and forced to make a decision that you didn't necessarily want to make but knew you had to? Well, that's where I am today and I'm sure that it's my own fault.

I've been a participating member of the www.11thacraviation.com site for over 4 years.  In view of the fact that we were only stationed in Vietnam for a year, we've pretty much written all we can write about combat missions in Vietnam and Cambodia that occurred during out time in Country. I always had a fear that we would reach a certain point and simply not have anything else to contribute unless we changed our direction and started talking about the effects of the war in our current day lives.

The way I saw it, I felt that we would need to transition into the way things played out in our lives because of Vietnam and if possible, explain to the general public or the history students that were interested, how we viewed those things. We've slowly but surely began the evolutionary journey from combat pilots and infantrymen to citizens of today. With that, there were stories of a different type that can only come from those who survived the war and lived with it for over 40 years.

Initially, there was a moratorium on editorials of a political nature. I posted an editorial or two that focused on the inability to tell the entire story if we couldn't discuss the political aspect of the war. For a time, I simply quit writing because I felt that I had contributed all I could.

At one point, a post was made about draft dodgers and, in my opinion, that post introduced the political aspect in a manner that was accepted by the group and it has slowly but surely grown from there.

If there's a lesson to be learned from that, I think that editorializing political matters during war time has nothing to do with politicians but more to do with the political agenda at the time. Initially, we were pretty careful not to point out any particular politician but eventually, the buck had to stop somewhere and we began to cite facts that came with the leaders of North Vietnam, South Vietnam and then, our own idiots.

Now, as time has progressed and we've become senior citizens, I think that we've reached a point where we either don't give a shit whether we offend anybody or get put on the proverbial "shit list". That attitude has produced some really informative editorials and comments about a number of issues and more than anything, that's why I put the address of the site at the top of this post. I would like to invite you guys and gals who haven't been there, to drop by for a visit and see what combat Veterans have to say about the war, their experiences then and how that has effected them now. It's an interesting read.

Most recently, some contributors appear to be fed up with the bull shit and have simply reached a point where the big picture is more important to history than the simple reports of various battles they took part in. After all, we fought like hell for a year but we've been forced to fight a number of after effects for over 40 years. I think there will be a ton of things unfolding as time moves forward. Stop in and give them a visit. You can go to older posts and read some good stuff about battles or just keep pace with the things that are happening now. No pun intended.