Posts Tagged “Vietnam”
As a veteran I 
had about as good a duty as you get. My first 18 months was in the Philippines. I was editor of a base newsletter at the Cubi Point Naval Air Station, plus I had an additional job as editor of the officer’s club newsletter at nearby Subic Bay. That meant $100 extra per month for an E-2 grade sailor right out of boot camp. As icing on the cake I had full access to the officers club since I interviewed and photographed acts performing at the officer’s club ranging from Johnny Mathis to the Ink Spots. From the Philippines I spent 2 months on a heavy cruiser based out of Norfolk, VA before transferring to a submarine base in Groton, CT, where I served in the public affairs office on the admiral’s staff, which included doing a Navy news program on local radio.
I point this out because today is Veteran’s Day – and I want to honor those that are the real heroes. I could have easily received duty where I may have been killed in a Vietnam jungle as 50,000 American heroes did, including a handful of friends I grew up with. I well remember flying home for leave from a U.S. Air Force base in the Philippines to Anchorage Alaska on a medivac flight that was filled with injured service men from Vietnam. Now those are real heroes.
I’ve often thought that young people in America who have never spent time in poor countries, where poverty and sickness are rampant, often don’t really appreciate what they have here in the United States.
So here is to the real American heroes, our service men and women who serve and have served so valiantly to protect and preserve the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. God Bless you. —
JO2 Bill Martin, USN
