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We're Still Here, Where and When We Need to Be

By Joe Miller

Joe Miller at VVAW's 40th Anniversary

It had been a long day, full of emotion and good times with old and new friends. When I first arrived at Roosevelt University that morning, I was informed that it would be my task to make the closing remarks. Though I enlisted in the Navy in 1961, I have been "drafted" to tasks a number of times since joining VVAW in 1969. What was left to say, at the end of this electric day? So many had already said such powerful and meaningful things on panels and in individual presentations.

Now, the two-hundred plus people in the room were looking forward to a party, to a social gathering, where old friends could just be old friends and new friendships could be solidified. There was lots of movement in the room, as folks were getting a bit antsy. Dave Curry, a member of VVAW's national staff was attempting to introduce me, and all I could hear was Dave going on and on about me being such a nice guy. Barry and others joined in with the "Joe's a nice guy" routine, and I had my opening line.

"So, if I'm such a nice guy, I should say fuck you all?" That got a laugh, and I managed to get people's attention. I then reminded everyone that this day, August 4, happened to be the 43rd anniversary of the second "attack" on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, the big lie that eventually got us more deeply involved in Vietnam. This period is always a little difficult for me each year, since I think about what I could have done, should have done, to blow the whistle on Johnson and McNamara's lie. How many might have been saved if I spoke up? Due to my own background in the Naval Security Group, I knew folks on the USS Maddox, and I knew why they were there. I can only say it was a shock to me, a shock to my belief system --- our generation was raised to accept authority unquestionably, and presidents just don't lie. What was happening here? That is where the questions began for me, and it took sometime for me to figure it out.

It is important for us to be together, veterans of our war, to remember and to rededicate ourselves to fighting against the causes of war. As for our work with Iraq Veterans Against the War, they are us forty years ago. It is our honor to continue to be here for them, to support them.

I reminded everyone that IVAW folks who spoke at their panel earlier in the day carried the seeds of their activism in their own humanity, and VVAW's role was to help them grow, to teach them the good (and the bad) things we learned by fighting against our own war. We also need to step back and recognize that IVAW has developed its own strategy for working against their war. We need to be there for them and to live up to the promise made by our late comrade Bill Davis that very morning, that "Never again will one generation of American veterans turn its back on another generation of American veterans."

In that light I reminded everyone in the room that we need to take care of ourselves. We have lots of work to do. We have survived much over these last forty years, including government attacks. We even survived various attempts by ultra left cults to use us for their own purposes, whether they were Trotskyists, Stalinists, Maoists, or even the followers of "little" Bobby Avakian. We may be "old soldiers" (or sailors, or marines, or airmen), but we will not fade away.

Finally, in thanking everyone who came from near and far to join us in this commemoration and rededication, I suggested that we should look forward to meeting in another five years to celebrate the fact that we are finally winning. We could then have a real party!

Barry Romo at VVAW's 40th Anniversary