Vietnam Vets Articles…

Dear Editor,

Thank you, Ben Olson, for the excellent interviews with local Vietnam veterans. This is Pulitzer Prize- worthy journalism. I also would like to thank the interviewees for telling their personal stories frankly, honestly, and no doubt reluctantly at times.

I was captivated by these stories because I’m the same age as these fine men and came close to having the Vietnam experience. I volunteered for Navy ROTC at Penn State in 1967, but failed the eye exam (20/25 in one eye, caused by too much reading). Then the liberal press at the time (Walter Cronkite) persuaded me to oppose the war.

One of my cousins, Gary Pencek, went to Vietnam and came back with stories similar to those told in these interviews. His brother Bob decided to move to Canada and became a lumberjack. I was going to follow him, but by sheer luck came up with a high draft number, 225.

Another cousin, Terry Greenhalgh, God bless him, was shot down in Laos. His name is on the Vietnam Memorial.

Since then, we’ve launched into some other stupid wars. I’m getting a little tired of this and so, being the creative – inventive type, I did some brainstorming and came up with a solution. I have invented a new weapon. I call it the Shit Bomb.

Yes, anytime some pseudo leader/dictator/idiot starts misbehaving, we drop one of these on his nice palace. We’re talking about an explosive megaton human feces device that will cause infinite embarrassment and shame. He (or she) will not be hurt, but will have to retreat to his nice underground bunker or vacation home to avoid the stink and the possibility of contacting E. coli. He will tell his minions to clean it up, but they will be laughing (along with the rest of the world) and tell him, “Clean up your own s—.”

The military-industrial complex will hate new weapon because it will be very low cost to manufacture and deliver using the latest drone technology. So, it’s going to be a tough sell, but I’m optimistic because our new president is looking for ways to cut the budget.

And hey, welcome back, Ben.

Bill Stuble
Dover

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words. I was glad to give some attention to those brave souls who sacrificed so much for our country.

-Ben Olson