Thank you Derty D, I appreciate both the thanks and the thoughts on the game. My name here is uscmd. Not usmc.
But yesterday I cried my eyes out, watching the combat scenes in the movie "we were soldiers". La Drang valley 1965. I enlisted in the army in 1966. Trained as a combat medic, went through all kinds of awful stuff. Including shuttling patients around Brooke army medical center (the army burn center, where patients at times arrived in the fatigues they had on in the jungle), while I waited for the army pharmacy school class to start. 100 in my class 25% died in a series of mortar attacks on mash type units. I was lucky, I stayed at the school and ended up teaching pharmacology to the green beret medics.....and doing 6 months of training videos.
White phosphorus, is the stuff in 1 type of grenade, placed on the hood of a car it will burn right through the engine. We made some wp grenades that had bad fuses, and instead of 3-4 second delay, they exploded as soon as they left the throwers hand. The result was so horrible, its 100x worse than any nightmare. nose, ears burned off. the rest of the face was like a clay sculpture, AFTER 15-20 SURGERIES. One of my 'shuttling' tasks was taking these brave 20 y/o's to the photo lab were their "progress" could be documented. In the movie a young boy has a wp grenade go off near his head. Another scene, was washing blood out of helicopters, after picking up wounded.
These events for me, took place between 1966 and 1969. Yet they scar me emotionally to this day. I still remember a 21 y/o girl walking out of her horribly burned husbands room, where she was strong for him, then she passed out in the hallway. Oh and unlike my dad and grandfather, no parade. Instead we (I) was spit on and called baby killer, in '69. But, the army did pay for 3 years of med school. Not a great trade for 50 years of guilty veterans days. Survivor guilt.
Which is why, we need to fight wars, spend the precious lives of our young men and women, when, and only when we are genuinely threatened. Not to sell weapons or make profits for oil companies. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex, and its dangers to our democracy.
Sorry didn't mean to write an essay. Though I appreciate the cathartic value of typing it. So derty D, my double thanks. A sincere BOL on your plays tomorrow
