The Fall of Saigon-50 Years Ago

To most, April 30,1975 was the conclusion of American involvement in the Vietnam War. Any effort or accomplishment we made in holding the North Vietnamese from occupying the South was all for naught. The South's army, the ARVN, collapsed due to lack of supplies, poor training and really too much dependence on US aid.

For the men and women that served in Vietnam I feel a sense of sadness and indignation. They were asked to go to a tropical hellhole and fight for the MIC, which had been conflated by the "domino theory" of communist expansion.

My dad served two tours over, 1966 into 67 I believe. He was in the USMC and enlisted in 1965, right after high school. He was honorable mention All State in Kentucky HS football. Had a couple of offers, and I remember him saying Georgia Tech had sent some letters of interest. To me, he wasted a college football career for a meaningless war and the scars that would result from the war.

My dad was injured and received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. I still have those medals under his flag that his mounted on my bookshelf. He was also exposed to agent orange that caused pulmonary issues. Aside from the physical wounds, he had the emotional scarring that battle brings. He had PTSD from the violence he witnessed and that segued into a bad alcohol dependency in the 70's and 80's. Sadly that affected my family.

That story was pretty common for a significant amount of veterans. PTSD, alcohol dependency and drug abuse. The war affected veteran's families by proxy. And still does, as our Vietnam war vets are aging and still dealing with the turmoil.

So, to any of our veterans who served during this era-thank you for your service and sacrifice. It was a hell of a war and you all were mistreated in different ways. I would like to think our government had learned something, yet the war machine finds new ways to stay relevant and quite alive.