The Cap

He who was seated on the throne said, " I am making everything new! "   Rev. 21: 5

It was a spur of the moment thing, a thought that seemed like a good idea at the time. You know how those go but what the heck. So I called him and and asked. He was a Viet Nam veteran and one of those traveling Viet Nam Wall memorial walls was only about twenty miles from us. "You wanna go? I'll take you." He said "Yeah." Surprised me. I picked him up.

He never talked about the war much, at least not to me. No reason he should but I don't think he talked much about it to anyone. The Viet Nam vet's weren't treated like the veterans of WWII, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. At best they were ignored, at worst they were spat upon, heckled, and ridiculed. Most just hoped when they came home to slip in, greet the family, get in the car and quietly go home. It was a war everyone just wanted to forget for a number of reasons politically, militarily, and morally. News was dominated by racial hatred and riots, dirty politics, Watergate, drug abuse putting more soldiers in hospitals than bullets and death tolls from the war that eventually topped 58,000..(not to mention 3 million Vietnamese), it was a bad time in America. A soldier home from Viet Nam wasn't honored much as honor was scare in America back then. If Korea was the "forgotten war," then Viet Nam was the lost and buried war. The young men who made it home were lost in the turmoil and their rightful place of honor beside America's fighting men was buried along with the bad memories of a bad time.

As we walked along the length of the wall he began to tell stories. Maybe he had told those stories to his wife and kids, his dad, I don't know. I heard names, episodes, Army lingo I'd never heard him use before. He was not infantry and never went out on patrol but his base was regularly rocketed and mortared. He told of how close the mortars came, picking up hot shrapnel for a souvenir, sliding into a bunker like sliding into a base to get to safety, standing on picket with an M-14 when intel told of a coming attack. He told of  sorry human beings and noble ones he met along the way. He just walked and talked and then we were at the end of the wall. We wandered over to a trailer selling memorabilia to finance the wall's travels. I was a little surprised. He studied the caps, the pins, the flags. He talked about coming home and the Army rushing them through so quickly that his group never got their campaign pins. He lingered for a good ten or fifteen minutes. I was a little surprised. He went to the attendant and ordered a cap that said Viet Nam Veteran. I was getting to be less surprised. I paid for the cap. I was shocked. Then he bought a pin. I think I finally get it.

He can wear the cap now. For all that was wrong about Viet Nam, it's finally right and good to recognized that these guys served and sacrificed like maybe no one else. Little thanks, little recognition, little honor was given after that war from nearly forty years ago. But the truth eventually comes out and no truth, nobility, sacrifice, no selflessness goes unnoticed forever. If it escapes our notice, it never escapes God's. He will make all things new; He will heal; He will remember; He will bring justice; He will bring peace.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.  Isaiah 2:4

Thank-you for your service. Wear the cap proudly. Be at peace.
Cos