Troops going overseas leave loved ones behind
In the spring of 1964, my brother received his commission from West Point as a second lieutenant. I was 8; he was my hero and still is. The Vietnam War was still in its infancy until the Gulf of Tonkin incident, following which President Johnson dramatically increased troop numbers by well over 100,000. And now it was my brother’s turn. He got to Saigon, then moved north through Nha Trang, Da Nang and finally landed in Quang Tri just south of the DMZ.
We knew all this because letters he sent home told us so, and on the kitchen wall my mother had a National Geographic map with pushpins locating his command. Anyone who came to our house saw that map and recognized the significance of it. I wonder if anyone has done that recently with pushpins in say Beirut, Fallujah, Kabul or Mogadishu. What would that feel like now for somebody’s mom, dad, sibling or cousin? What would it feel like if you were located at that pushpin site? Who would hang your map on the kitchen wall?
Let’s make sure that all possibilities and diplomatic solutions are fully explored and understood before we obligate the next loved one to be a pushpin on some distant map.
Peter L. Steyn