What Are Words For? (8/22)

[Railyn]

WARNING: I'm likely to get up on my soapbox, but I feel I'm among friends here, and I'm hoping I don't offend anyone, but rather just voicing my opinion......

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I'm very proud of my dad. He's a veteran - VietNam war. He was a Staff Sargeant in the Air Force. Our VietNam (and Korea) vets are not revered. They received no hero's welcome when they came home. Many of them will never be mentally right again.

My cousin served. Daily douses by Agent Orange made him diabetic (the VA now admits the link). He spent months in an Army hospital - near death - until they figured out what was wrong with him. He lost his long battle in 1999. One of my dad's friends had different side effects - sterility, and grey hair before the age of 30. My father-in-law (my husband's step-father) served a whopping 5 tours of duty. His health is ok, but he came home to find his first wife had a baby in his absense, and filed for bankruptcy.

The first time my dad heard this song, he just sat kind of frozen, listening. It quickly ranked up there among my favorites. It's an honest look at the fate of many of these men and women, and I stood up and cheered that someone was finally trying to draw some attention to this.

We will again be going to see this artist in about a month. One of my husbands favorites. A tireless chamption of our fighting men, no matter what conflict, and a fierce patriot, I admire him even if his style of music is not my favorite. I wrote him, thanking him for all he's done for our vets, and for bringing this issue out into the open. I was rewarded by receiving backstage passes, and am eagerly awaiting my chance to meet him - a hero to me for "daring" to bring the subject up:

STILL IN SAIGON
By: The Charlie Daniels Band
Album: Windows
Author: C. Daniels (I'm assuming - I could find no record for this specific song - he appears to write his own stuff from what I could find)

Got on a plane in 'Frisco
And got off in Vietnam
I walked into a different world
The past forever gone

I could have gone to Canada
Or I could have stayed in school
But I was brought up differently
I couldn't break the rules

Thirteen months and fifteen days
The last ones were the worst
One minute I'd kneel down and pray
And the next I'd stand and curse

No place to run to
Where I did not feel that war
When I got home I stayed alone
And checked behind each door

Cuz I'm still in Saigon
Still in Saigon
I am still in Saigon
In my mind

The ground at home was covered in snow
And I was covered in sweat
My younger brother calls me a killer
And my daddy calls me a vet

Everybody says I'm someone else
And I'm sick and there's no cure
Damned if I know who I am
There was only one place I was sure

When i was still in Saigon
Still in saigon
I am still in saigon
In my mind

Every summer when it rains
I smell the jungle, I hear the planes
I can't tell no one, I feel ashamed
Afraid some day I'll go insane

That's been ten long years ago
And time has gone on by
Now and then I catch myself
Eyes searching through the sky

All the sounds of long ago
Will be forever in my head
Mingled with the wounded cries
And the silence of the dead

'Cuz I'm still in Saigon
Still in Saigon
I am still in Saigon
In my mind

I am still in Saigon
I am still in Saigon
Yes, I'm still in Saigon
In my mind

My Opinion In A Nutshell: I'm not a country fan, but I will forever support Charlie, and his tireless crusade for our soldiers. I've always said that you don't have to agree with what went on (most people will tell you they don't) but it's not fair to take it out on the people who only did what their country asked them to do. And I'm glad for the oppertunity to tell him so in person. Let's just hope this one goes better than my meeting with Al.......

[H2IZCOOL]

Absolutely agree with you! Taking out one's anti-war feelings on the soldiers, many of whom had no desire to be there at all, is totally misplaced.

My own feelings are mixed toward the war. Without arguing if it was right or wrong, I always felt that it was fought stupidly. If you are going to fight a war, fight it to win, not to "beat the point-spread". We fought Vietnam and other wars since WW2 to beat the point spread.

As for the song, I've never heard it (although I had heard OF it) but the words are very sobering. They appear to capture the feelings of many Vietnam vets.

My favorite lines are:
My younger brother calls me a killer
And my daddy calls me a vet
It speaks to the "generation gap" that is always present but was particularly wide at the time.

BTW, what happened in your meeting with Al? I must have missed that post.

[Dawn]

This is a song that isn't heard often on the radio these days, but I've always thought it had a very powerful message.

I'm with H2 - what happened with the Al meeting? Was this at the concert you attended recently?

[Railyn]

H2IZCOOL said:

Absolutely agree with you! Taking out one's anti-war feelings on the soldiers, many of whom had no desire to be there at all, is totally misplaced.

My own feelings are mixed toward the war. Without arguing if it was right or wrong, I always felt that it was fought stupidly. If you are going to fight a war, fight it to win, not to "beat the point-spread". We fought Vietnam and other wars since WW2 to beat the point spread.

As for the song, I've never heard it (although I had heard OF it) but the words are very sobering. They appear to capture the feelings of many Vietnam vets.

My favorite lines are:
My younger brother calls me a killer
And my daddy calls me a vet
It speaks to the "generation gap" that is always present but was particularly wide at the time.

BTW, what happened in your meeting with Al? I must have missed that post.

I won't argue with you there, H2. Most vets I have spoken to feel that we should never have been there in the first place, but went because they were told to.

The lines you mentioned were particularly sobering ones for me to hear - that kind of dissention among your own family - I can't imagine it and am glad that no one in my family ever had that kind of attitude.

[Railyn]

Dawn said:

This is a song that isn't heard often on the radio these days, but I've always thought it had a very powerful message.

I'm with H2 - what happened with the Al meeting? Was this at the concert you attended recently?

I think it's not so widely heard anymore because there's more acceptance for our vets (thank heaven). Movies like Full Metal Jacket and Platoon tell a realistic story, according to my dad and his friends, and I think helped even further to show what these people had to endure, and help understand a little better what they went through.

[Railyn]

H2IZCOOL said:

BTW, what happened in your meeting with Al? I must have missed that post.

Dawn said:

I'm with H2 - what happened with the Al meeting? Was this at the concert you attended recently?

I thought everyone knew this one. We got the chance to meet Al in 1999, after his show at The Bryce Jordan Arena (Running W/Scissors Tour) up in State College (Home of Penn State). He agreed to put in a personal appearance at whichever Wal-Mart in the district won some sort of contest. As a former (disgruntled) employee, I can tell you that store was in the same district as our local stores, and because they have 2 stores in State College, they usually win everything. My best friend works at the store I used to work at, and she got the inside news that Montoursville won, and he'd be there the day after that show. We all went to the show, came home, slept, then went up early the next day.

IT WAS PACKED! Al has a big following here. We waited for a long time, like 2 hours before he even came out. We weren't too far back in line, and they moved everyone through pretty quickly. We were allowed 1 autographed item per person, and no personalized autographs. We were allowed pictures, but not personal pics (ie: us with arms around him - could not go behind the table). My husband and my best friend both took their ticket stubs. I wanted something a little more personal, so I took the book out of my boxed set. It was the first thing I bought with my first paycheck from my first real job (coincidentally, Wal-Mart, but I didn't buy it at Wal-Mart).

I had all that time to think about what I wanted to say - this was 15+ years in the making. My husband talked nicely to him, told him how much we enjoyed the show, etc. Al is SUPER nice, very appreciative of all the compliments. Then my turn. I had this big dopey grin on my face. I FROZE! That NEVER happens to me.

He looked up at me, smiled, and said "Wow. You must be a big fan to have bought my boxed set." All I could say was "Al" while simultaneously giving the thumbs up. I stood there shaking. Then my best friend went up to him. She's the shyest person I know, and they were talking like old friends.

If you look at the pic on my sig line, it's of Al signing my book. There are no good pics of me meeting Al. I gave my husband the camera, and all he got was one part of me. You can see the full pic in the Yahoo album.

I so want to meet Al again, to behave better. I was so embarassed! My friend still gets me to this day - she always said "At least I said more than 2 letters to him".

[smittykins--70s pop RULES!]

Railyn said:

I thought everyone knew this one. We got the chance to meet Al in 1999, after his show at The Bryce Jordan Arena (Running W/Scissors Tour) up in State College (Home of Penn State). He agreed to put in a personal appearance at whichever Wal-Mart in the district won some sort of contest. As a former (disgruntled) employee, I can tell you that store was in the same district as our local stores, and because they have 2 stores in State College, they usually win everything. My best friend works at the store I used to work at, and she got the inside news that Montoursville won, and he'd be there the day after that show. We all went to the show, came home, slept, then went up early the next day.

IT WAS PACKED! Al has a big following here. We waited for a long time, like 2 hours before he even came out. We weren't too far back in line, and they moved everyone through pretty quickly. We were allowed 1 autographed item per person, and no personalized autographs. We were allowed pictures, but not personal pics (ie: us with arms around him - could not go behind the table). My husband and my best friend both took their ticket stubs. I wanted something a little more personal, so I took the book out of my boxed set. It was the first thing I bought with my first paycheck from my first real job (coincidentally, Wal-Mart, but I didn't buy it at Wal-Mart).

I had all that time to think about what I wanted to say - this was 15+ years in the making. My husband talked nicely to him, told him how much we enjoyed the show, etc. Al is SUPER nice, very appreciative of all the compliments. Then my turn. I had this big dopey grin on my face. I FROZE! That NEVER happens to me.

He looked up at me, smiled, and said "Wow. You must be a big fan to have bought my boxed set." All I could say was "Al" while simultaneously giving the thumbs up. I stood there shaking. Then my best friend went up to him. She's the shyest person I know, and they were talking like old friends.

If you look at the pic on my sig line, it's of Al signing my book. There are no good pics of me meeting Al. I gave my husband the camera, and all he got was one part of me. You can see the full pic in the Yahoo album.

I so want to meet Al again, to behave better. I was so embarassed! My friend still gets me to this day - she always said "At least I said more than 2 letters to him".

[glow=red,2,300]WOW![/glow] That's great that you got to meet him! Al's always seemed like such a cool guy to me. I'm sure that if you ever get the chance again, you'll "behave better." PS: I have his box set too!

[Railyn]

smittykins said:

[glow=red,2,300]WOW![/glow] That's great that you got to meet him! Al's always seemed like such a cool guy to me. I'm sure that if you ever get the chance again, you'll "behave better." PS: I have his box set too!

Although I didn't make a total idiot of myself, I still am not happy with myself. I blew a chance of a lifetime. I'll just have to hope we'll meet again.....