Witnessed a homecoming of sorts today

[ERE99]

Every year I attend the spring gunshow in Birmingham, AL, with a lifelong friend. It's a very military themed show with a lot of displays of military weaponry and vehicles. There's also a lot of VFW, American Legion, and other veterans organizations set up.

The American Legion had a table near ours and had quite a few Vietnam vets gathered there throughout the weekend judging by the hats, shirts, and leather vests they were wearing with various logos and patches. There was one guy there the whole time I noticed who had a vest on that had a patch at the top between his shoulder blades that had an Engineer Castle and Combat Engineer embroidered on it. Being a former Army engineer myself I spoke to him a couple of times on Saturday

Today, Sunday, was really slow. Not much of a crowd at all. An older, late 70s looking man who's appearance was that of someone who'd worked hard his whole life walked from the AL table and stopped at ours to look. The guy with the engineer patch came over and put his hand on the older guys shoulder.

The older guy kinda turned and looked at him as the guy said "we've got something for you" and held up a new navy blue t-shirt. "From an old Army engineer, thanks for a job well done". The older guy held it out and on the back it said "NAVY SEABEES VIETNAM VETERAN" and had the SEABEES logo on it.They shook hands and the older guy broke down. Bawling like a baby right there in the middle of the aisle. They hugged for a while and I had to look away for a bit. Damn onions I guess. The older guy said nobody had ever thanked him for going to Vietnam. They walked away together, back towards the Legion table.

My uncle was a 2 tour infantry vet from Vietnam. He retired in 1976 but put his uniform on again 9May86 to administer my commissioning oath into the Army as an Engineer officer. He passed in 2010. If you know a Vietnam vet, give him/her a firm handshake and tell them thanks.

 

[Coltdefender1911]

I thanked mine EVERYDAY until he passed. I try and thank every vet I see, regardless of branch or campaign. I like to surprise them in a restaurant and secretly buy their meal for them. My way of saying thanks!

 

[Tim]

Nice!

Seabees had quite an under the radar reputation in Vietnam.

I had a Vietnam Vet Senior Chief for an "A" school instructor with all sorts of stories - lessons really - to tell from those days. Mostly having to do with how to effectively appropriate supplies, gear and essentials (read: liquor).

Being a Seabee was by far the best time of my life.

 

[Chuckman]

I thanked mine EVERYDAY until he passed. I try and thank every vet I see, regardless of branch or campaign. I like to surprise them in a restaurant and secretly buy their meal for them. My way of saying thanks!

I will PM my itinerary for the next few weeks.....

My uncle retired from the Navy, spent 26 (28? I forget), retired as EOCS (Senior Chief Equipment Operator), entire time in the Seabees. He was in VN twice, actually hooked up with my father (Marines) a time or two. He spent a lot of time in Biloxi, now I have a bunch of family on the gulf coast of Mississippi, try to get there as often as I can. Beautiful area.

My fave B'ees story: I was a corpsman with the Marines, and we were somewhere hot and nasty, temps well over 120. My unit had come in from outside the wire to the COP, where, while we were gone, some Seabees set up shop to build some LZs and improve some roads in a nearby town. I ran into a buddy who went through field med school with me who was assigned to that Seabee unit. He took me back to their tent...AC, hardwood floors, fridge stocked with beer (verboten at the COP). Paradise! I got wasted on two beers...I became a frequent visitor to that tent. Seabees know how to live in the field, and they know how to fight.