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This is about a Vietnam vet. Let’s call him Tom. Great choice, that, since his name IS Tom.<\/p>\n
Tom was an Ohio boy. Drafted in the mid ’60s, he wound up in an infantry unit as the RTO – the radio guy, to those who aren’t sure. Not a great job in combat – enemy priorities are communications, leadership, and heavy weapons – the RTO is at the top of the ambush priority list ‘cuz he can call in the hurt on you.<\/p>\n
Tom was an ordinary guy – well, unless you consider that he claimed he had the record for lost helmets in the Army, and said he never saw the enemy.<\/p>\n
“They started shooting, I hit the dirt. Since I didn’t have my helmet strap attached, when I hit the ground my helmet always bounced away. And in the middle of a firefight I sure as hell wasn’t going to go looking for it.”<\/p>\n
Tom figured he would break his neck hitting the ground that fast with that strap doing its level best to tear his head off.<\/p>\n
I asked him how he got through his tour never seeing the enemy – he held both hands up over his head and mimed shooting with his arms extended like that. “I never WANTED\u00a0 to see him, either.”<\/p>\n
Self-effacing guy, hunh. Kind of belied by the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts he was awarded. PFCs don’t get pretty end-of-assignment Stars like officers do.<\/p>\n
He never said he saw any of the spit-on-the-vet stuff. With the way he went through life, he probably could have been in the middle of a college riot and shrugged it off, or made a joke about it.<\/p>\n
But he came back to no brass bands, no ‘thank you for your service’, no parades. He just came back, went to work (ironically, at first for the company which made P-38s from the C-rat boxes), somewhere along the way collected a beautiful wife and two sons who towered almost a foot taller than him. “I always had my suspicions about that tall milkman””…<\/p>\n
We met on business toward the end of last century, hit it off, and were friends ever since. We were in two different armies – his was a draftee corps in a jungle war, mine a Carter\/Reagan era Cold War intelligence unit. But it was all Army, all the same kind of stupidity and craziness, and we were friends for a very long time. Lots of phone calls and lunches.<\/p>\n
Got a phone call Tuesday that we lost Tom. Had some health issues he never mentioned, apparently.<\/p>\n
Goddamnit. A quiet hero gone. I’m gonna miss him badly, and wish I had called more often.<\/p>\n
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