Veterans Day, Any Year
By Hal V. J. Muskat
I’ve dreamt my name is on The Wall in Washington, DC.
And, right now, I’m thinking That Wall; I’m recalling also trips to the Armory with my dad, an officer in the National Guard. I’m thinking of my uncle, a WWII and Korean vet who just celebrated his 94th birthday. I’m thinking of those two hundred names and faces I can’t remember, eighteen and nineteen year old kids from my Basic Training company, KIA long before their 20th birthdays. I’ve seen their names on that wall while looking for my own.
Every time I hear, “Thank-you for serving!” I want to reply, “Fuck You!” But, I usually ask, “For What are you thanking me? Shooting old people and children or NOT shooting them?”
or
a) learning how to do field abortions on “pregnant gook girls”;
b) Being part of a military that is responsible for millions of deaths in Vietnam;
c) Refusing orders to Vietnam;
d) Participating in the GI Movement;
e) Thinking for myself;
f) Not thinking for myself;
g) Following or not following orders?
As a member of the United States Army from 1965 – 1970, I was NOT defending America, our allies, your ancestors, families friends or the so-called “un-born”. America was NOT being attacked by the Vietnamese, much in the same way that America is NOT being attacked by Iraq or Afghanistan.
I for one, do NOT thank current soldiers for their service in Iraq or Afghanistan! I thank and honor those who repudiate this nation’s militarism. I thank Iraq Veterans Against the War for their thought, action and lives. I thank those veterans who organized and testified at the IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings and who continue to give witness to atrocity and mayhem.
I especially thank those veterans who are activists against militarism, occupation and madness.
On Veteran’s Day, I salute, in addition to IVAW, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, The National Liberation Front of Vietnam, WWII Allied Forces led by General Dwight Eisenhower; Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and all “premature anti-fascists”‘ Resistance fighters against the Nazi’s throughout Europe; Resistance movements from South Africa to South Harlem, from Philadelphia to Nicaragua where my government spent millions attempting to overthrow a democratic government who’s president had the nerve to be critical of the United States.
I do salute those who choose to defend America. Go get the bad guy, McCain will tell you right where he is, but why thank anyone for killing tens of thousands of civilians cause you can’t find the right cave and invaded the wrong nation? Should I thank today’s soldiers for being lied to and believing in that lie? Perhaps their “good intentions” deserve a salute?
On this Veteran’s Day, I again salute those veterans, from the armed forces of all nations who use their training, intelligence and compassion to seek ways in which our governments can find peace without increased militarization of the globe and our ways of life.
You may thank me, and I’d be honored, for my resistance to imperial war, for my support of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, for my continued activism that nourishes my soul and gives me reason to live and create.
Just don’t blindly thank me for anything you don’t know about.
Perhaps that’s why I can’t seem to find my name on that Wall in a waking state.
Hal V. J. Muskat currently lives in the Bay area.
Editor Note: This post was updated to correct the spelling of the author’s first name.
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Bitter arn’t we?
If you’re not pissed, you’re not doing it right!
Someone tells you thank your for your service and you want to respond with fuck you? There are plenty of people out there that want so say fuck you for simply for serving, even if you’ve had a complete change of conscious since.
Bull.
Cow.
No use getting nasty. Everyone’s opinion is valid and needed in this debate on war or peace.
When people thank me for my service, I reply thanks and that I hope they are talking about my work at Veterans For Peace!
Here’s a greeting that we can use with our fellow peace mongers:
Thank you for your service…as a protester!
“The Nationalists used to say that he who wages war, destroys cities, and sows discord among the people is a hero. A new and different hero worship must be introduced. He shall be a hero who builds cities, safeguards the peace and makes people happier, richer, and more harmonious in their community life.”
– Social Democratic Interior Minister Fritz Ulrich, Stuttgart, Germany, September 1947
Fritz Ulrich saw the worst of Nationalism. He would have known.
I don’t feel he was being nasty. More a PTSD moment.
Hey Goatskull, I have not had a complete change of consciousness. I entered the army against the war in Vietnam because I was too dumb at the time (1965) to know I had “choices.” Halfway through my tour, I had learned more then I needed to know to dedicate the rest of my active duty time to doing all I could to educate myself & other GI’s about WHY we were really fighting. Sabotage is easy at that point. See “Sir, No Sir!” to learn about a few of the hundreds of Active Duty who opposed that war.
Here are some veterans to love and honor this Veterans Day:
Donald Duncan, who resigned from the Green Berets in protest of the Vietnam War
Dr. Howard Levy, who was imprisoned for refusing to train Green Berets troops in Vietnam
Oliver Hirsch and the Nine for Peace, who refused deployment to Vietnam
Keith Mather, Randy Rowland, and the Presidio 27, who were charged with treason for protesting the murder of an inmate in the Presidio Stockade
Susan Schnall, who dropped thousands of antiwar leaflets over her base in San Francisco
Elder Halim Gullahbemi and the Ft. Hood 43, African American soldiers jailed for resisting being sent to Chicago to attack demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention
Carl Dix and the Ft. Lewis Six, jailed in federal prison for refusing deployment to Vietnam
Louis Font, who went from a career officer studying at Harvard to federal prison for refusing deployment to Vietnam
John Huyler and Ron McMahan, Navy officers who led a campaign to keep the aircraft carrier USS Constellation from returning to Vietnam
Tom Bernard and the WORMS (We Openly Resist Military Stupidity), who, assigned to send “bomb damage” reports to Washington, did all they could to resist the Vietnam War
Terry Whitmore, who joined the untold numbers of GIs who deserted the Vietnam War
Jerry Lembcke, who exposed and debunked the myth of protesters spitting on Vietnam Vets
Dave Cline and the thousands of active duty soldiers, sailors and marines who wrote and distributed hundreds of underground GI newspapers and built an antiwar movement that massively disrupted the military and played a huge role in ending the Vietnam War
The Vietnam Veterans Against the War who exposed the imperial, genocidal nature of the Vietnam War and hurled their medals onto the Capital steps
The Iraq Veterans Against the War who exposed the imperial, genocidal nature of the Iraq War and hurled their medals at a NATO summit
Camilo Mejia and all of the Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers who have refused deployment to those wars
Chelsea Manning
And that’s just to name a few.
My point being that there are many out there who basically will tell us to go f*** ourselves no matter what our frame of find was when we joined and no matter what is when we leave. Just read some of the comments section of NPRs FB page or other public forums that use FB. Some pretty bold things coming from people using their real names and profile photos. Even I came across a women over a year ago (The Small Bar in Univ Heights) who just had to but into my conversation with a friend and had the audacity to ask if I ever shot unarmed civilians.
I don’t know if you ever saw action or not or what branch you were in and while I respect your stance on war and how the military operates (tho I don’t fully agree) you might want to consider that it can be a pretty hard pill for other who when through it to swallow to see in retrospect that all of it was for nothing. In other words, forgive those fellow vets who don’t necessarily see things the way you do.
How about the doctors, nurses, medics/corpsman who were out on the field saving the lives of fellow Soldier/Marines/Sailors/Airmen? Or those who placed their own bodies on a grenade or some other device to save the lives of their unit? I think they are heros also.
Sorry Goatskull, our “service” in Viet Nam was, as you so eloquently wrote, “. . . was for nothing. . . ” Truer words have not and could not be written about the U.S. war against Viet Nam.
Most were in Viet Nam to take lives. I’ve nothing but the most love & respect for medical in all branches who were there to save lives. Some of these vets have been among my best friends as well as leaders in veteran’s anti war orgs. Among the two or three founders of Swords To Plowshares was a Navy Corpsman. I bow to Army Nurses!
I was in the Army from ’65 – 70 and refused orders to Nam. For that I’m proud. I’m extremely proud of being one of many thousands of GI’s, Airmen, Marines & Sailors opposed in the most active ways, to that war. We published over 350 of our own newspapers, as part of a massive GI Anti War Press. And in so doing educated tens of thousands of young men for the most part, about the war they had been told to fight and die in.
Asking you if you shot unarmed civilians is not an off the wall question, although interrupting the conversation of a stranger, to ask, ain’t cool. But that’s the sort of question I’d ask friends. Or, the sort of question I’d know the answer to if I knew my friends.
Hal. After marching in the parade today with Vets for Peace, I was talking to people at the Vets for Peace booth and memorial (Arlington West) set up on lawn behind the carrier Midway on Harbor drive. A Vietnam Vet (among many who stopped by) told me when I asked about his service, that he was a Corpsman. Had been in country 6 months and was captured. 18 mos. POW. He said: “they bled red just like we did, they were as afraid of us and we of them”. Yes, I thanked him for his service, his thoughts, his sharing, his caring. I agree with Dave, let’s don’t be “yelling” at each other. Let’s be a part of the change we want to see. In love, peace.
I’ll give you this. Asking someone you know well like an actual friend is one thing, but as even you acknowledged, butting into a conversation and asking a perfect stranger is not cool. In fact it’s flat out inappropriate and not worthy of an answer. Also considering this is San Diego where about two thirds of military personnel are Navy and the other third Marines and that the overwhelming majority of Navy (outside of Special Forces) never experience actual boots on the ground combat it’s kind of a dumb question. On paper I am a veteran of the Afghan war back when it started. I was in the so-called “Area of operation” but the truth is I was about nine hundred miles away from actual fighting. I’m not even in a combat occupational field and as such I never shot at anyone. Same goes for the majority of Sailors, even in wartime.
I want to thank you for writing this. Education and experience is the only way things can change for the better.
Thanks so much for writing this, Hal. It takes courage to say things that need to be said.
There’s never been a day the United States was not at war whether that was with nations with names like the Meskwaki, the Sauk, the Dakota, Lakota, or Seminole. Or whether that was with nations with names like Britain, Mexico, the Confederate States of America, the Phillipines, Spain, Germany, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
It never stops because this empire depends upon and would collapse very quickly without widespread and persistent violence. One day this empire will eat itself to death.
I would encourage veterans with highly-valuable skills to link up with resistance movements. We need your skills. We need your training.
To thank all of our service men & women, corpsmen, typists, politicians, DOD personnel, we should do all we can to erect yet another war memorial in Ocean Beach. The memorial should ignore all the atrocities associated w/ warmongering, war profiteering, & the budget for propaganda. This new memorial shall be the best chunk of rock dedicated to all the best ideas incorporated in the very idea of waging war: Life for ‘merikans, death to the enemy. Hate is love. War is Peace. Black is White. Up is Down. Left is Right.
Where do I sign up to abandon my conscience?