Krissy, I had to write to let you know there are two sides to this.

HUSH NOW

are two words I will never forget.

In fact, they were the parting words on my leaving Vietnam.

It went something like this;

I had funeral detail in Vietnam on Nov 1967.

We were pulling 12 hour shifts loading body bags in a C-141 at Cam Ranh Bay AB.

There was a lot of care to make sure the tags were not lost in transporting each up the ramp into the plane where they were neatly laid for transport home.

After a lot of grumbling by the GI's assisting in this duty Lt Davidson made a short speech to all 12 of the men.

He began with:

"Guys this is a humble occasion, having to return these men and fathers home to their families.

Some don't know yet that they gave their all.

Tomorrow it could be one of you!

With the thought in mind this is like part of a church service to be continued tomorrow in the homeland.

Lets do our part in the passing of the greatest men.

We know even though we never met them, we are seeing to it that each finds eternal rest." end of quote.

There never was a word said for the remainder of the day.

We worked as if it were our family member or brother we were sending to his eternal home.

I remember a Airman saying once the plane was loaded,

"We have done all we can do for these men, let us never have to remember what we had to do...

hush now,

lets go take these men home to their families.

That was nearly 33 years ago and after visiting your pages,

I can remember most of this as if it happened this morning and I am on my way home as a escort for hundreds of fathers on board.

The day the plane landed in Calif., was my last day in the military.. I didn't re-enlist.

You see I too relive the horrors of war.

 
Thomas Parsons SSGT USAF
Triple Nickle Commando
Cam Ranh Bay 66-67

..and we will never forget.

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