Reading my fathers journals again Vietnam

Last edited Sat Apr 13, 2019, 10:01 PM - Edit history (1)

I had my fathers journals notebooks letters from his two tours ,I’m not sure how to explain I guess transcribed. And I read these pages at times. when I first received them they were as I said letters to our mom and notebooks and loose pieces of paper. I have been looking at the Herds the 503rd operations online internet is amazing, And comparing them with his journals.

A letter written to his wife with perhaps a stub of a pencil humping with 173rd 66 -67 after a long night of wondering if he would see the sun rise, in his letter asking how my twin brother and I are. For a guy that only went to tenth grade he was very descriptive in his journals. My wife commented once not out of malice or rudeness ,she said I see where you and your father never paid attention on proper punctuation in school I replied exactly it is in our dna sarcasm.

My father in his journals a purple of a RPG rocket or green tracer rounds coming into us as NVA was trying to over run red tracers from the pig ( the m-60’s) and M-16’s as we put out rounds.

One part I read over and over was his second tour they had to pull a lp listening post. So my old man and four other troopers sky soldiers 1969 are between NVA and their element as a night battle rages. And the NVA knew where they were and it was murder incorporated my father and another sky soldier was only two come out of that walking back to their rifle company after that long night, as their rifle company got hit by NVA and the listening post was trying to get un fucked, not sure how far out they was from their lines but I’m thinking any distance is to far. But he wrote not sure after adrenaline I sat and puked smoking a cigarette . That reading that is to me fucking personal where I’m thinking fuck I read it and start to tear up because my old man was living at that moment second to second, probably thinking this is fucked I’m gonna get wasted tonight I don’t know , because I never lived a moment like he did I imagine he would be so full of anger and let’s I am not sure , my old man lost a leg on his second tour , one of my first hard memories of him was in VA hospital and it smelled I was probably 4. And he was in wheelchair and he hugged his boys held my one brother who was baby.

And after he discharged retired with wounds he went to work in steel mill a strong union man that’s where I get my union pride workers Wright’s. Artificial leg oh fuck it was just a leg I’m alive was his attitude, but Vietnam really squeezed his mind years later he would apologize to us boys. How he was so short tempered when we were younger. He came to know Christ around I don’t know maybe 1993 ,He always would tell me as my twin brother passed away in 89. I wish I would have been able to apologize to him how I was when you boys were young.

It’s ok I’d tell him and laugh I’d say ,do you remember what you said to me in 84 when I came home and said hey I enlisted today I’m gonna go benning infantry then jump school. And he would smile at me and say your a fucking pollock as we our family is
Ukrainian Polish. The day I told my old man I enlisted army going benning he looked at me and said you dumb fucker gritting his dentures cuz he knew what a world of hurt is and who would want anyone to experience it. I was 17 but I was lucky my time was all peaceful.