kingdom travelin'

I am proud to have invested 4 years of my life in the Air Force in the years right after the Viet Nam war. I was trained in Okinawa as a F-4 crew chief by guys who had just left Southeast Asia. They were a trip. The 70s in that context was a trip.

Those years were full of turmoil, like now, that was often the result of uncertainty by politicians. The Carter administration was apologetic in a situation where the Ford administration had previously used us in a show of force against Kim Il Sung’s antics at the Korean DMZ, under Ford N. Korea backed off. Under Carter, not so much.

I was fortunate that in my four years there were not more than two dozen deaths that I recall. Some from training accidents, some killed near our base by N. Korean spies, several in two incidents on the DMZ.

The uncertainty was the biggest cause of anxiety. When we were not sure how the politicians would react to the testings of our enemies.

I guess some things remain the same.

Pray for those who suffer today and will do so for the rest of their lives as a result of their service. Pray for the Veterans Administration and the clean up that is ongoing there. I know from my own experience with my dad, a WW2 veteran who spent the last months of his life in a V.A. Hospital, how crucial the V.A. is to veterans. I will always be thankful for those doctors and nurses.

If you know a veteran, thank him or her for serving, whatever their capacity.

The measure of a country is not the political faces we hold our noses and vote for, the real measure is the men and women who choose to join to protect this country.

God bless America. God help and bless her veterans.