Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
It is long past the time for Time Magazine to give Vietnam Veterans a "Welcome Home". We will never forget our 58,000 Brothers and Sisters whose names are on "the Wall" in Washington DC
We also remember that live American POW's were left behind. Consider this 58,000 votes cast.
2,200 men that would like to be able to vote !
J. David Murray
Sent in by Dave Murray
Chairman - POW/MIA Committee
New Jersey State Council
Vietnam Veterans of America
Tom Hennessy
"Linh D. Vo" wrote:
Downey, California, July 9, 1999
Re: "Person of the Century"
Dear Mr. Tom Hennessy and Time Magazine,
Thank you for your article "It's Time to Honor Courage," which appeared in Long
Beach's Press-Telegram, July 8, 1999.
I just came home from the memorable reunion of America's sons and daughters, who fought a
good fight in the Vietnam War. You know it well, Sir, for you have a West Point Graduate
son, whose American military institution lost twenty-five members of The Class of 1966;
and of The Class of 1967, twenty-seven men were killed in action or dead of battle wounds
in the Vietnam War, without which the Berlin Wall would have not been felled.
The 16th annual reunion of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (vhpa.org) on July
4th, 1999, in Nashville, was the fifth consecutive American patriotic event that I have
been blessed to attend, and be among the papa-sans of mine; looking around, I was the only
baby-san of theirs. (The displayed South Vietnamese flag before the large flag of the
U.S.A. symbolized the helpless people whom the Viet vets came to help. I am one of those
recipients.)
Your powerful article "It's Time to Honor Courage" is well put, and it has
captured my heart. Imagine yourself sitting among the two thousand plus helicopter pilots
and their loved ones at the reunion banquet. There were more than two thousand helicopter
pilots and two thousand more crewmembers shot down and killed by the Viet Cong and the
communist bloc artilleries. Imagine my tears of gratitude for those who died in order for
me to live. Ironically, I am living in their home, America, their home sweet home. They
should be here, not I.
My Viet Vet Daddies are the posterity of all the American Veterans, and the forefathers
whose children followed in their footsteps.
So, dear Sirs and Madams at Time Magazine, please take the words of wisdom of a
well-respected columnist, Tom Hennessy, in his article. Please know that my beloved Viet
Vet Daddy on The Wall, 58,000+ of them, will vote for the "Person of the
Century."
Who? "The American Veteran."
God Bless America.
Respectfully yours,
Linh Duy Vo
(The Boy in the Poem)
P.S.
May this letter be passed on to other American veterans around the world.
© Linh Duy Vo
See It's Time to Honor Courage by Columnist Tom Hennessy
