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Thank you Veterans

By Art Gallagher

On Veterans’ Day, we honor all the men and women who have protected our country and fought for our way of life.

Photographer Mate 2nd class Joe Sharp aboard the USS Forrestal in 1978

Photographer’s Mate 2nd class Joseph Sharp aboard the USS Forrestal in 1978

Today, I would like to especially thank the Vets of the post-Viet Nam era.

One of my most vivid memories from growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s was watching Mr. Hayes, a tough man and a Vet in my neighborhood, bawling his eyes out as his eldest son went off to Viet Nam. His son came home two years later, but he was different.  There was no parade, as the war was still on and increasingly controversial.  The younger Hayes was angry and seemingly damaged.

With pictures of casualties on the evening news every night, news of William Calley’s My Lai Massacre trial, the Kent State shootings and protests throughout the country, and witnessing how veterans of Viet Nam had come home changed, military service and the draft was feared by many.  Young men went to college, got married and had children or fled to Canada to avoid being drafted into the war.

The draft ended at around the time the Viet Nam war ended in 1973, but the Selective Service still required that 18 year olds register. They held a lottery, assigning draft priority numbers by birthdate annually in ’73, ’74 and ’75, just in case the draft was reinstated.   I turned 18 in 1976.  There was no draft registration until President Jimmy Carter reinstated it in 1980.

 

Today I especially honor my contemporaries who made the unpopular decision to serve in the armed forces during the post Viet Nam 1970’s. Those who volunteered to serve when most were relieved that they wouldn’t be conscripted.

Joseph Sharp of Farmingdale is one of those men.  Joe enlisted in 1975. He served as the Ship’s Photographer on the USS Forrestal from 1976-1979, a Photographer’s Mate 2nd class (E-5). Sharp said it was challenging to join in 1975. “There was a lot of anger around, but the people I worked with remain some of the best friends a guy could have.”

Today I salute Joe Sharp and the thousands of best friends a country could have, for keeping the United States free and safe at a time when I and thousands of others didn’t even think about it seriously.

 

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Posted: November 11th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Opinion, Veterans | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments »

4 Comments on “Thank you Veterans”

  1. Remembering Vietnam Vets on Veterans Day | The Save Jersey Blog said at 11:25 am on November 11th, 2013:

    […] By Art Gallagher | MoreMonmouthMusings.com […]

  2. Mike Harmon said at 4:18 pm on November 11th, 2013:

    Thanks Art

  3. Joe Wedick said at 7:13 pm on November 11th, 2013:

    VERY well said, Art.

  4. Lois said at 7:29 pm on November 11th, 2013:

    Great post Art. Thanks.