quote:

Originally posted by scpd3045:
Pardon me for being somewhat cynical. I promise my intentions are sincere.

Although I qualify as a Cold War Veteran, isn't my contributions inconsequential compared to those of other war veterans?

I was an outside worker through two bitter cold winters in the woods of Germany, but maybe our duty was easy compared to the accomplishments of other vets.

quote:

Originally posted by greywolfghost:
I think a great number of us guys (and gals) that spent our time on the fence have this terrible guilt within us of somehow not doing enough. I enlisted Feb '70 to 73 - Armor. I spent a year at Ft. Knox training, permanent party as a Sgt/TC with E Troop 15th Cav 194 Armor Bde, then Assistant Drill Sgt, Delta Troop, 5th Recon, 2nd Trng Bn. I was levied to Viet Nam 1971, but because of Nixon's draw down, was re-routed with 199 others to Germany, once I reached Ft. Lewis. I watched a slug of my buddies get on Tiger Airlines and fly away. And a bunch of them got killed.

I ended up in the Fulda gap as a Recon track commander, and finally as the TC on an M-60A1 dozer tank. I saw my share of freezing cold duty on the fence, and at places like Hohensfeld, Wildflicken, Graffenwohr - - but to this day, despite the danger of all those mid-night alerts, and the fear of being over-run by the Russians because we didn't have any ammo aboard, I can't call myself a "Viet Nam Era Veteran" without cringing. Even trying to type this makes me want to erase it all and forget it. I lost six high school classmates. That's why I enlisted. Guys I trained with went and died. Certainly kids I trained went and died. A month before I left the States, one of my Basic Training mates came out of an elevator at Ireland Army Hospital, Ft Knox as I went in to go up stairs to see my wife and new son. The guy was in a wheel chair. He'd jumped out of a helicopter in Viet Nam, landed on a mine, and lost both legs already, and I was still in the States just training people - -

In Germany, I found out from a supply Sgt. I'd known at Knox, that most of the guys I'd trained with had been up around Khe Sanh, and most were dead.

I still have dreams of trying to get on that plane with them, and the reporters with their cameras taking pictures of the first soldiers diverted by Nixon won't let me get through - -

Yeh, being a cold war veteran for some is a bitter pill - -

quote:

Originally posted by scpd3045:
Erich, I don't know what you're speaking of. No one here mentioned relationships of veterans
families. I suggested my service as a cold war veteran doesn't match that of other war vets.

I pulled fence security for 4 years. Some of the nuclear weapons bunkers we guarded were empty. Two or three times a year someone would sneak up on us trying to catch someone sleeping.

quote:

Originally posted by scpd3045:
I suggested my service as a cold war veteran doesn't match that of other war vets.