Every year I attend the spring gunshow in Birmingham, AL, with a lifelong friend. It's a very military themed show with a lot of displays of military weaponry and vehicles. There's also a lot of VFW, American Legion, and other veterans organizations set up.
The American Legion had a table near ours and had quite a few Vietnam vets gathered there throughout the weekend judging by the hats, shirts, and leather vests they were wearing with various logos and patches. There was one guy there the whole time I noticed who had a vest on that had a patch at the top between his shoulder blades that had an Engineer Castle and Combat Engineer embroidered on it. Being a former Army engineer myself I spoke to him a couple of times on Saturday
Today, Sunday, was really slow. Not much of a crowd at all. An older, late 70s looking man who's appearance was that of someone who'd worked hard his whole life walked from the AL table and stopped at ours to look. The guy with the engineer patch came over and put his hand on the older guys shoulder.
The older guy kinda turned and looked at him as the guy said "we've got something for you" and held up a new navy blue t-shirt. "From an old Army engineer, thanks for a job well done". The older guy held it out and on the back it said "NAVY SEABEES VIETNAM VETERAN" and had the SEABEES logo on it.They shook hands and the older guy broke down. Bawling like a baby right there in the middle of the aisle. They hugged for a while and I had to look away for a bit. Damn onions I guess. The older guy said nobody had ever thanked him for going to Vietnam. They walked away together, back towards the Legion table.
My uncle was a 2 tour infantry vet from Vietnam. He retired in 1976 but put his uniform on again 9May86 to administer my commissioning oath into the Army as an Engineer officer. He passed in 2010. If you know a Vietnam vet, give him/her a firm handshake and tell them thanks.
The American Legion had a table near ours and had quite a few Vietnam vets gathered there throughout the weekend judging by the hats, shirts, and leather vests they were wearing with various logos and patches. There was one guy there the whole time I noticed who had a vest on that had a patch at the top between his shoulder blades that had an Engineer Castle and Combat Engineer embroidered on it. Being a former Army engineer myself I spoke to him a couple of times on Saturday
Today, Sunday, was really slow. Not much of a crowd at all. An older, late 70s looking man who's appearance was that of someone who'd worked hard his whole life walked from the AL table and stopped at ours to look. The guy with the engineer patch came over and put his hand on the older guys shoulder.
The older guy kinda turned and looked at him as the guy said "we've got something for you" and held up a new navy blue t-shirt. "From an old Army engineer, thanks for a job well done". The older guy held it out and on the back it said "NAVY SEABEES VIETNAM VETERAN" and had the SEABEES logo on it.They shook hands and the older guy broke down. Bawling like a baby right there in the middle of the aisle. They hugged for a while and I had to look away for a bit. Damn onions I guess. The older guy said nobody had ever thanked him for going to Vietnam. They walked away together, back towards the Legion table.
My uncle was a 2 tour infantry vet from Vietnam. He retired in 1976 but put his uniform on again 9May86 to administer my commissioning oath into the Army as an Engineer officer. He passed in 2010. If you know a Vietnam vet, give him/her a firm handshake and tell them thanks.
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