Have you noticed that the accumulated passage of time seems to sneak up on us, then all of a sudden, we become older than we think we are?
Now, those of us who served “in-country” — a phrase
unfamiliar to those who did not — find our memory of service in Vietnam
something akin to a walk through history.
I recently read a fascinating collection of data in The New
York Times, by Charles Thompson of the Thompson Nelson Group, that was
captivating. I share some of it below.
A statistic not included is the number of people who claim
to have served in the Republic of Vietnam. That number is three or four times
the 3 million who actually did.
In case you haven’t been paying attention these past few
decades after you returned from Vietnam, the clock has been ticking.
“Of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in Vietnam,” Thompson
writes, “less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today, with the youngest
American Vietnam veteran’s age approximated to be 60 years old.”
So, if you’re alive and reading this, how does it feel to be
among the last third of all U.S. veterans who served in Vietnam? I don’t know
about you guys, but this gives me the chills, considering this is the kind of
information I’m used to reading about WWII and Korean War vets.
No comments:
Post a Comment