I’m certain I am not alone among baby boomers in regard to perspectives involving our experiences during the Viet Nam War era. To say the least, those events impacted heavily on each of us in many varied ways.
Most of us grew up among elders who answered the call to duty in the recent world-wide conflict. It would be difficult to ignore the same calling in their presence, even as skepticism regarding the current venture began to surface. This would be the outlook of many of us who felt compelled to respond. Of course, many of us were “encouraged” to answer the call regardless of our personal wishes.
In today’s international events, questions often arise regarding the decisions of leadership. However, general high regard for those who participate in their endeavors (the military) is prevalent. Those of us who hesitated to don our uniforms in public during the Viet Nam conflict are heartened by the demonstrations of appreciation provided in airports and other public places for members of the military. For myself, an obscure sense of loss lies just below the surface as I think back of those times.
Those times for us are in the past. What was done is done. Scars remain on healed hearts. We honor those who did not return, but wistfully hope their sacrifice had allowed for them a degree of recompense. Perhaps we are seeking to assuage our own personal guilt that it was them and not us.
In any case, the experience of those times shall color our life outlook until our last day. All shall fall under the category of who and what it is to be a “Common Boy”.
Please consider the following verse that attempts, in a few short statements, to incapsulate the heart of a generation:
“Common Boys”
By Bernard Ray Tillery
Two boys were born three months apart,
They lived across the street.
Bikes or bats or salting bird’s tails,
Common boy’s dreams complete.
Safe from battle and war they be,
Their dad’s beat back the sting
And smacked those rats of East and West
Who would kill freedom’s ring.
One boy learns to fly, one to march,
As many question why.
A place far west and south of Home,
Common boys fight and die.
But it’s over now and in the books,
A black stone to remind
One boy recalls before that stone
Common boy left behind.