Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 24, 2011

I was 12, and more concerned about the Mets than what was happening in Saigon.

I was on Camp Pendleton, waiting for all those people getting on those helicopters,(SV refugees) to get there, so we could “patriate” them. 40K plus. Just sayin….

I was fighting to get approval to extend my remote tour for another year. Not realizing that 4 months later Congress was going to screw over the country were i was stationed.

I was 36 years old, married with a young child and a baby, and pickled tink that “our guys” were getting out. Originally, living near Stanford, I had been “anti” uniform wearers. But after I had talked with some returned vets, I changed my mind. One guy, who was a good friend, had been a sergeant. He told me tales of how “grunts” got rid of gung ho “point men”. In the jungle on mission they would just hang back, getting slower and slower, exposing the “gung ho” on point, till either the Cong got him, or he was completely separated. There was also “fragging” in the news, but my sarge friend didn’t personally know of any cases.

 U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress.29 The capture of Saigon by the Vietnam People’s Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see Vietnam War casualties). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from less than one million30 to more than three million.31 Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians,181920 20,000–200,000 Laotians,323334353637 and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.[A 2] Source: Wikipedia

I was 25 and thinking, “Well, we’ve learned our lesson about getting into wars where we have no business. I’ll never see that again.” Whoops. We got into TWO wars where we didn’t have any business. God help us if the neocons get control again.

Do the math, folks. Assuming that B.D. and Ray Hightower were both somewhere around 18 years-old in 1975, then both characters are now at least close to their mid-50’s. Actually, B.D. has to be pushing 60 (maybe from the far side) if we are to make any sense of previous timelines.

I had just turned twenty.

I just checked. On 22 April I went to a Kraftwerk concert in Birmingham, AL. I’m sure I must have gone to see someone else on the bill, but darned if I can remember who.

Exclusive:  PRESIDENT OBAMA REQUESTED THE REMOVAL OF INDEFINITE MILITARY DETENTION EXEMPTIONS FOR US CITIZENS 

Brian Walker, Special Report:  The National Defense Authorization Act that originally passed through the Armed Services Committee was approved with provisions that explicitly exempted US citizens from the indefinite detention language of section 1031 (which was re-numbered to 1021 immediately before it was passed) of the bill. This would have meant the legislation would have reduced the president’s powers to detain US citizens. Read more at: http://us.mg3.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=441815779&clmigstart=20110628 Source: NATION OF CHANGE news service

I was in vietnam from jun 1967 till oct 1971 and treated or baged and taged way too many.Was in Iran fromJul 1972 to mar 1979. I was in Iran for the fun and games there also. I had it,and retired.

I want to thank all of you for your comments. Where was I when Vietnam was ending, at home raising children. I was then and now opposed to war but never anti uniform. My dad was a wounded vet of WW I and my bro WWII and Korea. My bro and I had lots of discussions about Vietnam. I don’t think that he even understood how much worse that war was than the ones he was in. I love all of you guys and wish you the best of holidays.

I was 16 years and 3 months from being born :D

I was four and a half years old and unaware of the existence of a place called Vietnam. Also, I didn’t speak a word of English back then.

Ray is pushing 50 and BD is pushing 60. BD was in Nam in 72.

I was 18, a freshman in college. My elder brother flew a helicopter like the one in panel three, in 1970-71. After he came home, my dad fished his DFC and other medals out of the trash where he had thrown them. I think he’s glad to have them, now. One of my dad’s cousins was in the 29th Inf. Div. in WWII. Went ashore on D+2, I think it was, on Omaha beach. Went through the western campaign, was cut off for almost a week in the Ardennes, wandering around in the snow. Stayed in the National Guard after the war and had a real affection for the army, serving as top NCO of some kind. Raised his only son, his only child, in that ethos. Got his boy in the Guard as soon as he was old enough. Proudly sent him off, a young lieutenant, to Viet Nam. He came home a month later, and got his name on the Wall. Forty years from now, will Jihadism be where Stalinism is now? Will Iraq be our friend and trading partner as Viet Nam is now? No one can know.

24 years old at that time. I was one of the last draftees in ’72, draft ceiling #92, my number, 92…got injured in basic @ Ft.Polk and was given a medical discharge…was stunned by the Fall of Saigon… all of that for nothing…and it continues…

Cap, John Wayne wasn’t a hero, he was an actor. He could have insisted on serving, but he didn’t.

SAD!

BD was a good bit older than 18 in 1975. Longtime Doonesbury readers know that BD was a combat veteran in ’Nam (which is where he met Phred); technically, he was born around 1949-1950.

I was in the USAF from 1/69-1/74. I spent the war in New Hampshire and am still grateful for that. By the following August I was in grad school and beginning to see the contempt for those in uniform expressed by those who had managed to avoid service.

Generally speaking, my generation has been calling the shots for a while now. It ain’t impressive, folks. It ain’t impressive.

John Wayne never served a day in the United States armed service.

I mustered out in 1962 and by 1975 had finished college and was married and had four children.

As I commented yesterday, somewhat late in the game, look up “Tom the Dancing Bug” on Gocomics.com It’ll provide some grist for your mill.

A Festive Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to one and all.

In April of ‘75, I was out of the Navy for 5 years, (’64-’68, one tour in Nam), and had just celebrated my 3rd year anniversary of what was to become a 35 year career in the Grand Rapids Fire Dept.

Hmmm….Seems to me this would be a good segue for Kimmy seeing as she was the last orphan out of Saigon,

I was old enough to know better and prayed to God this would never happen again. Then the remake,“V II (in the desert)”. Go Figure.

I was 14 and more interested in trying to attract a certain girl.

April of ‘75… I was a senior at a conservative private engineering college, getting ready to start looking for a company that might hire somebody with a degree in this peculiar new field called “computer science.” And I was midway through a class called “World Peace, Arms Control & Disarmament,” taught by a uniformed major in the US Army. Whose attitude toward the war was that it had been an ill-conceived fiasco, an attempt to achieve political ends that can’t be achieved through the use of force.

1975 Was in 7th grade was more interested in my latest then girlfriend. Than in a country that I was only peripherally are of in my small town.

I was in basic training in San Antonio….

Eddie Albert earned a Bronze Star at Tarawa.

Win or lose, the enemy always seems to end up being a trading partner…why not just eliminate the war part and simply trade in the first place?

This reminds me more of the last chopper out of Phnom Penh before the KR marched in and bitch slapped the nation back to Year Zero.

Calling everyone, putting my wedding on hold, and getting ready to fly out to the Enterprise (CVN-65)

I was 17, a real child of the times, and I can still feel the horror and hopelessness, building for many years, reaching it’s peak right then.

I was in college, a year away from prison, four nickels and a dime. Basically it was the Carter years … drugs.

Merry Christmas to most of y’all, don’t be a douche.

I was on alert at LCC Kilo-1, Minot AFB and totally disgusted with the betrayal of an ally.

Where does Ray say he probably was at that time? In Juvie, meaning juvenile detention? I can’t quite make the printing out.

I had just turned 11 and I believe I was watching the pilot episode of starsky and hutch when abc interrupted the broadcast with the news of the fall of saigon

I was a HS Junior, praising God that we got out of that mess before I was draft age, but wishing we could have left with a little more dignity. Deployed to Gonzo in ’80 & ’82, too close to war with Iran to be fun.Mike was a freshman in ’70, but B.D. was already the starting QB, possibly a little older.

I was eight years out of ’Nam, and Phred, my cockatiel was possibly riding around on my shoulder, ducked under my ranger hat, as she had learned about the birds and bees in the woods that might snack on her. Or, maybe I was up on a cliff somewhere reminding myself that in many ways, people are dumb enough to get themselves into trouble, that someone else must get them out of. At least we got paid for it, but not much. It is “experience” that makes us appreciate life.

My son is driving up today. His “war” was Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. We may reflect on Christmas past tomorrow, and be glad for all our comrades over the years come home safe, perhaps to grieve for those who did not. It is life we have experienced that leads us not to trust in fools.

Merry Christmas all, and forget not the purpose of giving, and reflect upon all small gifts.

I was 4 years out of the army. I got ucky and never served in Nam. Finishing college, would go on to marry. My oldest served in German and was sent to Kosovo. Got out right after 9/11 and went into a National Guard unit. Right before the unit went to Afganistan he was hurt during training and eventually left the service. I pray for the safety all those serving today, that they to may return sefely to thier loved ones.

I was just ending a 3 year tour in Germany, and an 11 hour flight from Frankfort to McGuire AFB, NJ (Frankfort to the Naval Base at Roda (?sp) to London to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, to McGuire. Looong flight!) Took a cab to a motel near the port facility near where my car was at, and turned on the tube about 11PM to see some of the last TV pictures coming out of Saigon. Shock. Dismay. Anger. And a sense that I knew that this was what was going to happen when we decided to leave. Left a lot of good people to fend for themselves, especially the Montengards. God help them still.

I was 10 years old and still hadn’t figured out why, in the summers, there were so many young men in wheelchairs hanging out at the public pool. But I knew that if I was ever lost or in trouble, I should look for a house with a Blue Star in the window.“Viet Nam” were just a couple of words I’d heard, nothing more…

By the way, the first time I ever came across the word “Gook” was in a Doonesbury book (our paper didn’t carry the strip).

John Wayne never served in any war.

I was at the AFEES station in Boston swearing into the U.S.M.C. (If i had just waited a day)

You want to know what happened in ‘75? We declared victory and got out of Viet Nam. It’s a good trick. No reason it won’t work for Iraq. Harder in Afghanistan because the Russians already used that one there.

I was three years OUT of Bien Hoa AB, and DAMN GLAD of it! And worrying about every one of the guys I left behind me when I got an early DEROS to go to Defense Information School on a cross-train to AFRTS. I know EXACTLY how B.D. feels about that picture in Panel 3.

BD was a student at Walden when he was introduced in 1970, so yes; he’s older than Ray, and he is, indeed somewhere around 60.

I was about to finish my fourth year of college in April of 1975, myself.

I was 23 and an E-5 and now I’m 60 flying a wheelchair. OIF AND NAM!

I was 15 and not at all interested in Vietnam, even though Australians were there. I didn’t know anybody there and where I was it was something that was only on telly. I was much more interested in how the cricket was going and real (not ice) hockey.

And thank God we did. My stepson is in a western version of OWS. By the way, he has a job earning almost as much as I do (the lazy little druggie :-) and working overtime as well as doing media for them. Try getting a little information before you make a fool of yourself.

“When you regularly reference “Iran”, are you prophesying, or just praying, wishing, and hoping?” Hopefully all of the above, probably none.

“Marion Michael “John Wayne” Morrison was an actor, not a hero.” Weeeell, yeah, but a “feel good” icon all the same — for ignorami.

Wasn’t it John “the Hero” Wayne who said, “Ah don’t give no damn ‘bout no women’s lib, long’s she’s got dinner on the table when ya git home”? BTW I actually liked the dude, though I thought he was a plodding, wooden actor — at least compared to, say, Clint “the Flint” Eastwood, who was a rather plodding, wooden actor himself. That said, I can’t remember an Eastwood movie I didn’t enjoy, and I saw a lot of them. Can’t say the same about Wayne’s movies though. Too easy to see the ending after about 30 minutes in.

Bismarck said “some things must be decided by blood and iron”.We don’t seem to want to spare any.

I was not quite 7 years old – and actually remember seeing the choppers evacuating personnel from the US embassy roof on the news – although I didn’t really know what it was about, just that it was a big deal and was re-run a lot.

I had been out of high school a couple years and remember this scene very well.

I’ve been reading Doonesbury since 1974, and I remember the exact strip (and the events) that B.D. references, and how poignant the strip was back then, with B.D. reading about the Vetnamese airlifts from his friend in-country, and then him hanging his head in his arms. Thank you, Mr. Trudeau, for bringing it full circle, again.