Home for Christmas
Larry Slessler spent the Christmas of 1965 as a soldier in Vietnam. He is home now.
Slessler has written 10 guest posts here over the past three years. All of them are reflections on his time as a soldier in a "hot war," with bullets, artillery fire, booby trap bombs, and the threat of imminent death by violence. Some of them are set in Vietnam. Others are reflections on his joy and relief at being home from Vietnam.
America is both a republic and an empire. It is useful for a self-governing people to know what it is doing and who is doing it.
Guest Post by Larry Slessler
I woke up on Christmas 1965 with what felt like a stocking filled with coal. My mother would worn me during my youth that a coal filled stocking was what Santa would bring me if I was a naughty boy. I was no longer a boy…I was in my middle 20’s and knee deep in a cesspool called Vietnam. Talk about a stocking filled with coal.
There were no cell phones, no computers to message home. Snail mail was my connection to/from the United States; or what we called “The World.” Home was so abstract and remote it was like we were on another planet and I wondered if I would ever see that home planet again. We all lived for that day when a “Freedom Bird” would fly us back to the United States.
I had already missed the birthdays of my 3 year old daughter and 2 year old son. My view of the day was summed up by a saying we had in my unit; “There is no gravity, the earth sucks.” Probably the most accurate description of Christmas for me was the historic tag attached to D-Day of June 6, 1944; “The Longest Day.” Christmas 1965 was the longest day of my life. I guess I was guilty of the world’s most self-inflicted pity party. I know the day competes for the number one worst day of my 83 years on the planet.
So Larry; why are you bringing such a downer story to 2022?
December 25th, 2022 is my 57th Christmas since 1965. My 3 year old daughter is now 60. Her brother is right behind her at 59. Daughter Malia and son Matthew have been added to my family. I have lived a special life that is blessed with family, friends, meaningful work and at 83 a still healthy body.
That terrible Christmas of 1965 will rear its ugliness in my emotions every December. But it is now a precious gift that gives not takes. The remembrance is a 4 carat diamond, a million dollar winning lottery ticket and all the best any man can have. That Christmas gift is the reminder of how good a life I have had and still do.
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| Slessler's children long ago |
I can select the temperature of my home, turn a key and drive when and where I want. I can open up a fridge and select what I want to eat and if so moved, cook it in/on a stove or handy microwave. I can connect with all my friends via phone or other electronic means. As an average person in 2022 America I have it better than 99% of the humans that have lived on this planet we call earth.
Christmas 2022…a wonderful day it will be, is.
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7 comments:
The last paragraph said it all, we have a lot to be grateful for and I am grateful.
We were given a good reason for it, but we remained engaged in the Vietnam War for about 10 years. Our troops were finally withdrawn, mainly due to media and public pressure. Although equally pointless, we remained in Afghanistan twice as long. Maybe we were better off with the draft – more people seemed to take a personal interest.
58,220 Americans were killed in Vietnam. To commemorate their sacrifice, we built a 493-foot wall holding all their names. If the Vietnamese were to build something comparable, it would have to be over three miles long.
Oops. What I meant, of course, is that we were never given a good reason for being in Vietnam.
And kudos to Mr. Slessler for reminding us of how blessed we are. Any of us with adequate food, clothing and shelter are among the world's elite.
Thank you for carrying the burden that comes with wearing the uniform then and now.
Those of us lucky enough to have been born here in America are truly blessed.
Black Washington post journalist, Keith Richburg went to Africa to explore his roots, and came back chagrined to realize that he was lucky that his ancestors were sold into slavery in America, because his life was now better than it would have been in had he been born in Africa. He said this in his book, Out Of America.
It was a really interesting book. I highly recommend it.
In it, to explain the lack of successful development in Africa, he tells a story about two graduate students, one from Asia and one from Africa. They study economics somewhere in Europe, and then go back to their respective home countries to become economic officials
After five years, the African pays a visit to the Asian. He is picked up at the airport in a limousine and driven to an opulent mansion. When the Asian greets him at the door, the African expresses his admiration for how the agent has achieved this level of affluence and asks how it was accomplished. The Asian says, “I got a grant to develop that airport you landed at,” and then gestures at himself and says “10%,” meaning that he skimmed 10% off of the grant for himself.
Five years after this the Asian pays a visit to the African. He is picked up at the airport by a helicopter and flown to the top of a small mountain, which has been turned into a compound guarded by members of the military. He is conducted to a large palace where he is greeted by the African. He e expresses amazement at what the African has accomplished and asks how it was done. The African points at the valley below, and says, “I got a grant to develop that superhighway down there.“ (There is no superhighway.) He then gestures at himself and says, “100%.”
It is nice to thank God from whom all blessings flow. Slavery is not one of them.
Africa remains the wellspring of expertise on the practice of mass slavery and the nuances of cross-cultural slave trade. We owe them.
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