When will I see you again?

[Matt_SERE]

I have been doing a lot of thinking in these times since the last few elections. The frightening pace at which this country of ours has turned on itself and is trying so hard to start/enhance a class warfare state has left me shocked and dismayed.

While driving to an appointment I heard a lost oldie, (today’s standard) and remembered the first time that this song meant something different to me and most likely not what the artist had intended.

Back in the 70’s a training film had been made by and for the US military on Code of Conduct Training. In it were interviews with former POW’s, family and friends.

These men had some of the most disturbing thoughts while in captivity. To make these troubled times even more atrocious is that they had to deal with the vile conduct of the media, Jane Fonda and all of hers friends.

Even after training videos, reading diaries & debriefs and meeting some of these men I still can not fathom the hell that they went through. What got almost all of them to come home as sane as they possible could was the family, friends, food, baseball, picnics and just being an American. Towards the very end of the film a series of photos of the men meeting their families at the airport during Operation Homecoming were shown.

View attachment 62013 View attachment 62014

Operation Homecoming: Finding Aids: Reference Information Paper 90 Table of Contents


I write this not only thinking about the POW’s but of all the past and current Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines that have to take that flight home and think what are they coming home to.

Does my wife, (today it would be spouse) still love me? Are the children going to know who I am? How will I be perceived at church? What does normal food taste like? Can I hold a normal conversation, a normal job and even a near normal relationship?

Unfortunately some even have come to question what has my country become and does it still love me? Will it be the same, better or different? Will life be any resemblance of what I once knew?

Think of these questions and this song will never mean the same thing to you either.
(I wish I was proficient at power-point or video editing and I would recreate it and make it current.)

This is the song that was played over the photographs of service men coming home in various states of physical and mental health. What must have been on their minds waiting to see who would meet them at the air field, the hospital and later back home. We know that different service men have seen very different homecomings in the past 100years since WWI.


Now when I hear this song I have come to ask:
What has our country become? When will I see you again?




-The Three Degrees- -When will see you again- - YouTube



I couldn't have written this as well as some but the more I think of what to write it ruins the post.

 

[mark056]

Well while I applaud your feelings I have even greater feelings for the ones who didn't come home, who wound up in Soviet Gulags or Chinese prisons or elsewhere in the Communist Bloc. Korean War POWs, Viet Nam POWs and even WWIi POWs who were liberated by the Red Army from German POW camps and never made it home. Then there were the ones kidnapped in Berlin before the wall went up, shot down on recon missions over the USSR and elsewhere. The evidence is there and the .gov wrote them off. Some were quietly repatriated, others released from the Gulag with new identities with the promise that they would never try to contact our .gov but most died in captivity. Those are the ones I really care about.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Matt_SERE]

Mark,

I understand and agree with your sentiment. As I footnote(d) I did not write this as well as some. This was mostly about when will we see the USA the way we saw her the day we took our oath either enlisted or commissioned.

Matt

 

[ColdDayInHell]

Well while I applaud your feelings I have even greater feelings for the ones who didn't come home, who wound up in Soviet Gulags or Chinese prisons or elsewhere in the Communist Bloc. Korean War POWs, Viet Nam POWs and even WWIi POWs who were liberated by the Red Army from German POW camps and never made it home. Then there were the ones kidnapped in Berlin before the wall went up, shot down on recon missions over the USSR and elsewhere. The evidence is there and the .gov wrote them off. Some were quietly repatriated, others released from the Gulag with new identities with the promise that they would never try to contact our .gov but most died in captivity. Those are the ones I really care about.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got the chills reading that. [sad2]

And it is a nice post SERE.

 

[beaker]

As a ROTC cadet I had the pleasure of meeting Col Sponeybarger who was the detachment commander. He was a hell of a nice guy, alum of the Hanoi Hilton and was released during Operation Homecoming. How do you think some of these anti everything progressive liberals, most of which never served anything but drinks and their condescending attitudes, would do in the same situation?

The last missing F111A team to be shot down was Capt. Robert D. Sponeybarger
and 1Lt. William W. Wilson. Sponeybarger and Wilson were flying a
multi-plane strike against ten targets in the Hanoi area, including
airfields, transshipment points, RADCOM, and port facilities. During the
attack on the Hanoi port facility at 2138 hours, after pickling off the
twelve 500-pound bombs and scoring direct hits on the port facility, Jackel
33, piloted by Capt. Sponeybarger with his Weapons Systems Officer Capt.
Bill Wilson, was hit by enemy fire. The crew had to shut down the right
engine as they attempted to leave the area. They had been flying a typical
F111 tactical mission when they were hit - flying at supersonic speed only a
few hundred feet altitude.

Veteran Tributes

 

[Coyote33]

What timing. I just happened to see this one below today. Have your tissues ready:

simply beautiful

(Oh, play the "When Will I See You Again" song above while looking at this site, cripes.)

 

[dustoff22]

Great job Sere. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I PM'd you after I screwed up giving you a rep point... clumsy fingers.

Sadly, we've left POW's behind from all wars. Henry Kissinger admitted same after Vietnam suggesting something to the effect that "leaving well enough alone" was the answer rather than causing a stink by trying to rescue those still in captivity.

At least today, our men and women in uniform are being welcomed home as they should be, most likely by a predominance of Vietnam vets who themselves were given the cold shoulder.

WW2 marked the last time in this country where everyone was forced to sacrifice and work for the war effort. Since then our wars/conflicts whatever you want to call them have been such that the majority of the population has continued business as usual most unaware of the sacrifices made by those sent to do the dirty work. Perhaps if the citizenry were required to sacrifice and recognize that we're sending our sons and daughters into harms way we'd stop being the world's police force. Until then, our military will continue to be treated as mercenaries.