Vietnam's Unwelcome Heroes (Co-Written With Tim Ryerson)

We gave Johnny a gun and a uniform Trained him to kill, in a regiment conform Sent him deep into Vietnam jungles warm With little regard to how we did him harm So certain we knew what we joined to fight for We were shipped off to fight an unwinnable war A war of "containment," unlike those before Mothers screamed, fathers wept, siblings ached to the core By parachute dropped to a ghastly death scene Johnny ached for the life left behind, so serene His family, fiance did not know what war means Especially the haunting of lost children's screams Those of us who survived thought we'd just done our jobs We returned and were shamed by violent gobs Of silver-spoon white kids in hate-spewing mobs Spat-on and welcomed as baby-killer slobs No heroes welcome would await these young men No ticker-tape parades were staged for them Just jeers from crowds, uncaring government Greeted the lonely Vietnam Veteran Too classy and noble to demand our fair share We lay in that shabby old hospital there In a closet-sized room with no visitors' chair Understaffed, underfunded, with short-handed care The "benefits" they found would astound all now And it leaves one to wonder how our hallowed ground Would be filled with unnamed graves of men once proud Before the rows of white crosses we should bow Our Wailing-Wall stands now in Washington, D.C. So shiny but black, a telling-tale of the fee We have paid for our nation, our land of the free Will you come pay respects? Will you not at last see? Some veterans still suffer disgraceful neglect So please explain who more deserves our respect Let us pause with angelic choirs and genuflect To show gratitude as on this Wall we reflect Friends, Dane Ann is among those who served in the army during the Vietnam war and is now recovering from long-overdue hip surgery performed at an old VA hospital in Gainesville, Florida. Thank you for your prayers on her behalf. Many thanks to Tim Ryerson, another Vietnam veteran, for joining me in this write.