It's been several days since I returned home from the "Walkin' to New Orleans" action. I guess it took more out of me than I was aware of because I crashed, slept about 20 hours yesterday.
As the time extends ever passing, it is hard to believe how much I experienced, how deeply it impacted me. The next several days I'll put up some pictures with random comments.
One of the things that impressed me the most was the inter-generational bonding between us older vets and the the young Iraq War vets. Here is Stan Goff, Vietnam Vetera and retired Special Forces Master Sergeant, embracing Geoffrey Millard, one of the many spokespersons for IVAW. Paul Robinson, President of Mobile chapter of VFP, who helped organize the Veterans and Survivors March to New Orleans, stands to the side. Other organizers whose tireless efforts made all of this possible were Vivian Felts of Savin' Our Selves, Elliot Adams, Ward Reilly, Stan Goff, Dave Cline, Ann Wright, Virginia Rodino and Michael Cuzzort. Of course, each of us in our own way contributed to making this historic event possible.
It was so moving, so inspirational for me to march with other vets, both young and old. It was healing for me, an elder vet, to relate with the younger vets from Iraq, who are so much like who we Vietnam Vets were 35 years ago when we returned from the jungle quagmire. We didn't have our older brother Korean Vets or daddy vets from WWII to mentor and guide us. Rather, we were ostracized and shunned by the traditional "hat" organizations, VFW and the American Legion, because we lost the war, because we protested against it. It took us several years during the 12-year-long Vietnam War to self-organize VVAW, even longer to form VVA. Today, vets across generations will join together to march and fight for peace and justice. That's most cool.
This is a picture of survivors speaking to us from Bayou le Batre, Alabama. The gentleman with the microphone is a Korean Vet. He brought a rousing laugh to us vets by saying that he was strictly a 2/18 soldier, that he gave the U.S. Army two years, but he took eighteen years for himself as a free citizen. Though he lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, he was most inspirational saying that he had the most important thing anyone could have, a loving God and loving friends in a close-knit community of support.
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