A friend, Steve Lepley, posted this onto a FB fan page that I frequent. It is copyrighted 1996 by Dan Mouer, All Rights Reserved. It is a great read that I’d like to share with you all…
A college student posted a request on an internet newsgroup asking for personal narratives from the likes of us addressing the question: “What is a Vietnam Veteran?” This is what I wrote back:
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Vietnam veterans are men and women. We are dead or alive, whole or maimed, sane or haunted. We grew from our experiences or we were destroyed by them or we struggle to find some place in between. We lived through hell or we had a pleasant, if scary, adventure. We were Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Red Cross, and civilians of all sorts. Some of us enlisted to fight for God and Country, and some were drafted. Some were…
Interesting and a good attempt to cover millions of separate stories with a very small brush stroke. No problems with that, in fact kudos. I am told by available reports and data, that Steve’s facts regarding the service of black veterans is off a bit, and that active military service in Vietnam by black troops was just below the ratio of black citizens to the general population, as was the composition of maneuver units as well. Of course, my sources could have screwed it up as well, but it’s worth checking closely. I was further disillusioned when fact-checkers told me that the average age of RVN soldiers was higher than many news outlets had reported as well. I don’t know how any oof these hod up to scutiney if the subject is limited to close combat units.
CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website 
Outstanding…! – I really enjoyed it – in some strange way it explained things for me. Like a hidden message waiting just for me!
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Interesting and a good attempt to cover millions of separate stories with a very small brush stroke. No problems with that, in fact kudos. I am told by available reports and data, that Steve’s facts regarding the service of black veterans is off a bit, and that active military service in Vietnam by black troops was just below the ratio of black citizens to the general population, as was the composition of maneuver units as well. Of course, my sources could have screwed it up as well, but it’s worth checking closely. I was further disillusioned when fact-checkers told me that the average age of RVN soldiers was higher than many news outlets had reported as well. I don’t know how any oof these hod up to scutiney if the subject is limited to close combat units.
Cortez Lawrence cortezl@hotmail.com
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