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So, I have my POW-MIA flag hanging in front of the open garage door yesterday, I'd just returned from visiting the local Veterans' park. All the hoopla was on Sunday so the place had very few folk wandering about Monday. Obvious fellow Vietnam veterans for the most part. Quiet "hello"s exchanged, not much else.
As I'm back sitting at the GPU (Garage Processing Unit} perusing the 'net, a herd of people are wandering the 'hood, armed with pamphlets, going door-to-door. Two women approach my abode, both maybe a decade younger than I. One of them on approach, a blonde BTW, says she DOESN'T know what the POW-MIA flag represents!!! That is the first time in many years I have been stunned into a deer-inna-headlights condition. I think my first words after some consideration were: "You're kidding me, right?" Her companion tried to explain to her its significance, somehow I still had not completely processed the fact this fifty-something year old woman hadn't ever noticed a POW-MIA flag, bumper sticker or something with the iconic image on it. This gal's mission was foremost in her mind, she listened to the explanation her partner gave then started trying to divert the discussion to scripture... I was NOT in a charitable mood by this point and her pal read that kinda quick. The dark haired partner then began to relate a story she heard regarding the repatriation of an airman, his remains finally returned home here in Florida. This is where it gets weirder. My former co-worker, a fellow Air Force phlyin' photog during the war, was on a Jolly Green SAR mission one day in April of '72. The downed airman in need of rescue was BAT-Two-One Bravo. That Jolly was hit and downed, all aboard declared MIA assumed KIA later. No way to get into that site, it wasn't 'til 2010 they were found. Jimmy Alley was the friend in the Jolly, first SAR bird to be shot down in that rescue effort.
I related that I knew well the story the woman was telling, Jimmy's name and the back-story. She then realized it was probably time for them to move on. She tried to hint to the blonde and walked back down the drive to the sidewalk. Not so, the blonde evangelista. She started parroting passages, leafing through The Book, not deterred by my then too obvious rising displeasure. Her pal had to come back up the drive and dissuade her from continuing, nearly pulling her away by the elbow... all I could do was say "Thank you" to the smarter one. After she'd managed to remove the irritation she came back again and allowed she was a history buff, mostly WW-II, but aware of much of Vietnam's history as well, and actually thanked me for my service.
What a bizarre weekend this has been.
As I'm back sitting at the GPU (Garage Processing Unit} perusing the 'net, a herd of people are wandering the 'hood, armed with pamphlets, going door-to-door. Two women approach my abode, both maybe a decade younger than I. One of them on approach, a blonde BTW, says she DOESN'T know what the POW-MIA flag represents!!! That is the first time in many years I have been stunned into a deer-inna-headlights condition. I think my first words after some consideration were: "You're kidding me, right?" Her companion tried to explain to her its significance, somehow I still had not completely processed the fact this fifty-something year old woman hadn't ever noticed a POW-MIA flag, bumper sticker or something with the iconic image on it. This gal's mission was foremost in her mind, she listened to the explanation her partner gave then started trying to divert the discussion to scripture... I was NOT in a charitable mood by this point and her pal read that kinda quick. The dark haired partner then began to relate a story she heard regarding the repatriation of an airman, his remains finally returned home here in Florida. This is where it gets weirder. My former co-worker, a fellow Air Force phlyin' photog during the war, was on a Jolly Green SAR mission one day in April of '72. The downed airman in need of rescue was BAT-Two-One Bravo. That Jolly was hit and downed, all aboard declared MIA assumed KIA later. No way to get into that site, it wasn't 'til 2010 they were found. Jimmy Alley was the friend in the Jolly, first SAR bird to be shot down in that rescue effort.
I related that I knew well the story the woman was telling, Jimmy's name and the back-story. She then realized it was probably time for them to move on. She tried to hint to the blonde and walked back down the drive to the sidewalk. Not so, the blonde evangelista. She started parroting passages, leafing through The Book, not deterred by my then too obvious rising displeasure. Her pal had to come back up the drive and dissuade her from continuing, nearly pulling her away by the elbow... all I could do was say "Thank you" to the smarter one. After she'd managed to remove the irritation she came back again and allowed she was a history buff, mostly WW-II, but aware of much of Vietnam's history as well, and actually thanked me for my service.
What a bizarre weekend this has been.
