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Jeff Roberson / AP
Participants in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans make their way along a downtown street Saturday, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the United States since the last troops left Iraq in December.
AP reports:
People in the crowd waved American flags and held signs reading, "Welcome Home" and "God Bless Our Troops." Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted three huge American flags along the route.
Two St. Louis men launched a grass-roots effort to hold the parade after noticing there'd been no large public celebrations to welcome troops home.
Full story: St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end
Sarah Conard / Reuters
Larry Connor, center, Vietnam veteran, salutes his fellow servicemen during the Welcome Home Heroes Parade in downtown St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 28.
Jeff Roberson / AP
Stephanie King holds a picture of her uncle, Col. Stephen Scott, who was killed in Iraq in 2008, as she prepares to participate in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo.
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Leroy Brown, are you a Veteran ? If you are, I can understand your views. If you're not a Veteran, I accept your thanks for my Vietnam service. That's what this forum is about, recognizing Veterans and their service.
As for your concerns on housing, add health, you don't have health, you don't have squat, physical or emotional. I came a long ways from 1969 as did many other Vietnam Veterans. Yes, some didn't make it home and some came home, but emotionally really never came home, and some we don't know where they're at (alive or passed). Don't know if you would ever understand that. Nonetheless, I was fortunate, I did the best I could with what I had. I sure as hell didn't wait or spend my time bitc#n about $#@, although I suppose that was an option.
Today there is more emphasis, recognition, programs (health, education) etc. to the plights of Veterans than there was when I served and came home. Yes, it may not be enough, but its something more than we had.
So Leroy, tell me what you've done today and what you propose to do tomorrow about fixing this problem, instead of whinning ? I believe we have enough of that already.
My "proposal," John is to house ALL veterans RIGHT NOW, no matter what the cost and what it takes. Clear enough? I also believe veterans should be given free health care. What do you have against this? Sorry for "whining" about the disgusting way America treats its veterans. You have my deepest appreciation for your service and your country has my deepest contempt for sending her soldiers into the wrongheaded Iraq invasion and for the way she abandons those who laid there lives on the line once their tours are through. Do you understand who I mean by "war hawks?" I certainly am not referring to the soldiers who do the fighting.
Leroy.
What I have against this ? Have you been homeless ? a Veteran at that. I have. Clear enough ? On my feet once again, contributing, volunteering, not proposing or whinning. Say something positive outside the whininy format. Give me a name of your program and I'll contribute. In other words, instead of talking the walk which is the easy part, "Walk the Talk", that's the hard part. Clear enough ? Actions speak a he!! of alot louder than words.
Good Luck with your proposal, I'll be watching for it .. somehow.
Let us not forget the fallen ones.
The Tombstones Stand so Silently
(On visiting Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, California.)
The tombstones stand so silently;
white sentinels, in ordered rows they stretch,
not one, much different from the rest.
And on each stone, inscribed an epitaph.
A rosary held, a requiem said so many times.
Upon the grass, like fallen tears the dewdrops lie,
while on the graves the wreathed flowers die.
And beneath each stone, within those hallowed beds,
sons and daughters laid their heads.
© Copyright...Allan M. Bedashi, (Mustang) LT/US Navy/Ret.