Weekly Mail Father's Day Special

   The first person sitting on the left in this photo is my dad, watching Cleon Jones catch the last out of the 1969 World Series





Not all anniversaries are ones we celebrate.

Sure we celebrate birthdays, weddings, and things like that. Other anniversaries are more somber, remembering those we lost.


Last week, my father had an anniversary of sorts, one that I would imagine he didn't want to celebrate per se but one I felt should be acknowledged.


June 10, 1969 was the day my dad was reported to be injured in Vietnam. 50 years ago last Monday.

His injuries were what we would describe now as catastrophic. He was in a coma for two weeks. My grandmother was informed by telegram that he was seriously injured.

He had to relearn to walk, write, throw, anything that required the use of your arm or leg, which is to say, pretty much everything.

Part of me wants to tell you everything he's been through, though even I probably couldn't do that justice. Even if I could, I'm sure he wouldn't want me to. He's a proud man, but he's extremely humble. He wears a Purple Heart pin on his sports jacket, but that's only been the last few years.

He 's never bragged. More impressively-he's never complained.

Not once.

There were more than a few times he would come home from work, with cuts and scrapes on his face and hands. Many times this was on his way IN to work, but he wouldn't come home. He'd still head in to his office.

He once told me his goal was to rehab himself to the point he could leave the hospital and get back to his job when his tour of duty was supposed to be up. That would have been June of 1970. He was back to work that April.

Last week, I had to shake my head when I heard President Trump's answer when he was asked about serving in Vietnam.

"Well I was never a fan of that war. I'll be honest with you. I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away. Nobody ever -- you're talking about Vietnam at that time and nobody ever heard of the country," 

Big Bill grew up in Woodhaven, about 6 miles away from Jamaica Estates, where Donald Trump grew up. In other words, Vietnam was just as far away for dad as it was for Trump, give or take 6 miles. Dad went. I'm sure it wasn't on his bucket list. I'm sure it wasn't for many of the 2.5 million Americans that went over there. 

On this Father's Day, I just want to remind all of us that we don't always have to look very far if we need to find a hero. Many times, they are as close as our own homes.

Mine definitely was.

Happy Father's Day


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Every year around late June/early July, when Sirius/XM 80's channel does their Top 40 Countdown from 1985, a song by British musician/composer Paul Hardcastle comes on called "19". It's basically a dance track with sound bites from a documentary about decorated soldiers home from Vitenam who ended up serving time in jail. The title of the song is based on a fact read by the narrator of the documentary that says the average age of the soliders serving in Vietnam was 19 as opposed to 26 WWII.

I don't know if any of you have ever heard this song, but I'm curious, were they actually playing this in clubs in the 80's? I mean it was on the dance charts. if I was out clubbing and this song came on, it would be quite a buzzkill.

BTW- my dad went to Vietnam in December 1968. Guess how old he was?

Paul Hardcastle 19






NOTES:

*Here are some statistics about the Vietnam War courtesy of a website created by the US Wardogs Association of America. http://www.uswardogs.org/vietnam-statistics/




*** To be fair, neither Bill Clinton or George W. Bush served in Vietnam, in case you think I was picking on Trump exclusively. Clinton defeated two heroes of the Greatest Generation, George HW Bush and Bob Dole, in his two Presidential victories, George W, defeated Al Gore and John Kerry who both served in Vietnam (Gore was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes) and John McCain, who was a POW in Vietnam for 6.5 years lost to Barrack Obama. The military draft had been abolished by the time Obama came of draft age in 1979, and America was not involved in any conflicts while Obama was of draft age (18-26).