Veterans Day

[blueskyracer]

To all the Vets out there thank you and to those still serving thank you for all the sacrifices to keep us free and safe.. I can't believe its been 40 years since my discharge in Gulfport MS.

[runabout333]

Jack Stotts comes to mind... Col. USAF retired... Team owner CSH & 500ccMH.

[deverhart1]

Hello Col.Stotts. Retd Capt David Everhart thanks you very much for being there. Miss seeing you at the Indiana races. I know you don't travel like you used to

[Mark 72@E]

In Honor of One Who Served:

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At 1905hrs on September 21, 1969 Alpha Company 4-3 Infantry in their previous used Night Defense Position received 30 82mm mortar rounds at BS577414 and small arms fire from all around perimeter. Alpha Company reports 4 US KHA and 5 WHA. At 2000hrs Alpha Company UPDATE reports add 7 more KHA and 6 more WHA for a total of 11 KHA and 11 US WHA. First Dust Off for 6 US WHA completed at 2000hrs. At 2100hrs Alpha Company reports the 10 KHA and 10 WHA are Dusted Off with 1 WHA remaining in the field. There where 3 mortar rounds that landed directly in fox holes resulting in all KHA. Personnel involved KHA Foster, Joe A. SFC, Amdrads, Wilfredo SGT, Stewart, Henry SP4, Barttebaugh, Dennis PFC, Franks, Davitt PFC, Hathcock, Larry SP4, Larson, Thomas PFC, Pachecon, Michael PFC, Castillo, Gregorio PVT, Steven , Elting PVT, (Medic) Dean, Carl PFC.

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I never knew Carl Dean personally. But I knew of him because of his legacy. He is one of the few to have earned the rank of Eagle Scout in our former Boy Scout troop. Carl was older than me and he was out of the troop by the time I joined in 1968. But as an 11 year old Tenderfoot, having earned the rank of Eagle Scout made Carl very special in my mind.

It seems rather surreal looking back at my childhood that although we were fighting a war in Vietnam, very little about the war actually filtered its way into my life. Watching battle scenes and learning the body count on the nightly news didn't have much impact on me because it all seemed so far away and distant. Carl's death changed that for me.

There's an episode of the TV show "The Wonder Years" that reminds me of Carl. The show's main characters, Kevin, and his heartthrob Winnie Cooper, are about my age in the story. Although dates are never actually mentioned, the show picks up around 1968 when Kevin and Winnie are 12. Although most episodes of the show revolved around such timeless issues as boy-girl relationships and teenage angst that could be placed in any decade of modern American life, this one show is different because it focuses on actual events of the day. It tells about the death of Winnie Cooper's brother in Vietnam.

Kevin didn't know Winnie's brother very well, just like I never knew Carl Dean. Carl had a sister my age and we both graduated from the same elementary school in the spring of 1969. We were in different junior high schools the following fall when Carl Dean was killed in Vietnam.

When Winnie's brother died in the story, Kevin didn't know what to say to her, but he could feel her pain. I never contacted Carl's sister. I wouldn't have known what to say to her then. But being the same age I could feel her pain. Kevin was reminded of Winnie's brother because even after his death, her brother's car was still parked in Winnie's driveway. I am still reminded of Carl when I think back fondly to my years as a Boy Scout and his legacy with the troop.

Carl's father remained as a merit badge counselor for the same Boy Scout troop into the '70s. I met his father in that capacity as I earned merit badges in my (ultimately failed) quest to become an Eagle Scout. Although I knew of Carl, and although I knew of his death, Carl was never a subject of conversation during those merit badge meetings with his father.

Carl Dean is, and always will be, my sole connection to the many sacrifices made by Americans during the Vietnam War.

[Jack Stotts]

Thanks Dave Viola and Dave Everhart for the acknowledgement. There are many veterans out there that deserve equal recognition. Many of our racers are veterans and few are aware of it. I thank all that served. Jack

[dwhitford]

I can think of only a handful of us born in the 1930s -- John Schubert, Ron Shurilla, Chick La Rose, and others who don't immediately come to mind -- who remember our parents cutting the bottoms out of tin cans so that they could squash the two ends on the kitchen floor into the overall can to take for the scrap-iron drive at the grocery store. Or our mom's saving all the bacon fat to be turned in at the butcher counter for making munitions.

How about the ration stamps for almost everything? Butter; eggs; Gasoline, of course! Shoe
leather: my step-mom once got a pass from a Newark shoe-store guy who clearly saw on his Flour-O-Scope that I'd clearly outgrown my shoes, but Frances didn't have the necessary rations stamps for the shoe leather in 1945. He had some extra stamps that he added to my step-mom's insufficient ration, so I got new shoes.

Of course, this was nothing as horrendous as the deprivations in England and, later, in un-occupied Europe, but it brought USA together. Whether we needed such rationing from today's perspective is open to debate now. But remember, the USA of 1940 was only 150,000 strong. And the Axis against which we went to war really outnumbered us.

WW II was the last war in which the American people were ever asked to come together as a united force, a nation at war. It's also the last time we clearly won a war. Korea still hangs only as a truce. We lost Vietnam 100% after perhaps our longest-ever war. And now we've lost 2 sandbox wars and will either need to go in again or just withdraw, defeated.

I have no solutions to recommend, just these observations about how different American overall resolve has deteriorated since I was a little kid and thought my elders would protect me. Now I'm the elder who needs to protect my kids, and I find no resolve in Congress (most now much younger than I am) who wants to be American in the 1940 sense of things. I'm as frightened as I can be about future boat racing and overall America as I think I used to know it. -- dave.

[raceright]

Dave just to add another Opinion to WAR=The only way to win a WAR is to conquer who ever you are fighting with. Even WWll we never conquered any one and that cost the USA dearly. We like to just end fighting and maybe even rebuild who ever we are fighting. The term Stupid Americans is more evident every day. Oh and we did not loose Vietnam we just left.



Pat Wright
Spec 5
Vietnam 67/68