Hmmm...
Is there a similar ceremony occurring throughout the mental wards for Vietnam Era veterans who never got over their "Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome" and made a life for themselves after coming home from 'Nam? I was recently (May 13-20) in the VA mental ward (as a patient), and had talks on several occasions with a veteran who (though seemingly sound of body) had obviously not resolved in his mind the difference between a combat zone and the hallways of civilian life...
Not to make a short story long, I still am haunted whenever I hear the sirens wail for a weather alert, by memories of my time at SACHQ Offutt AFB NE. I never deployed into a war zone, but in my station, I was THEORETICALLY less than four minutes from annihilation by nuclear weapons, emphasized by regular alert tests. I suppose that makes me a screwed up coward to some. In my defense I can only say that my concern at the time was not so much for myself as for the girlfriends of mine who lived on base. Collateral casualties are so often ignored...
I'll quit now before I start a flame war.
Lonnie Courtney Clay
