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Hey Hey Uncle Sam . . .

By Marty Webster

Memory is one of humanity's supreme endowments. Each of us acts today, and hopes for tomorrow, in the light of past experiences that have been woven into a life-story. When we want to know someone else, we ask that person to tell us something of the story of his or her life, for in this way personal identity is disclosed. To be a self is to have a personal history. This is what defines one's uniqueness.

In a larger sense this is true of human communities, especially those in which people are bound together primarily by shared experiences rather than natural factors. In terms of today's insanities, our national self-consciousness must find expression in the remembrance of events that the Vietnam veteran has lived through, and the events that have given him a unique sense of identity and destiny. If, for instance, a visitor from outer space were to drop down on American soil and ask why this country is a United States rather than a mixed multitude, citizens would probably try to explain what it means to be an American by narrating a history: the dramatic epic of the migration of the Pilgrims to the New World, the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence, the Civil War, the conquest of the frontier. But how would the average citizen explain and justify the recent events that have thrust this nation into the center of the world arena? To be an American is to share a particular history, whose events are retold and relived from generation to generation. By the same token, this is true of the Vietnam veteran.

The most distinctive feature of VVAW is their sense of tradition and legacy. In many respects, the Vietnam veteran has always been diverse—in politics, in culture, and in racial characteristics. But the Vietnam veteran has a unique memory that reaches back through a long chain of tradition to the nightmares of southeast Asia, events that formed them as people with a sense of identity and a legacy that must never be silenced.

Whenever the National Anthem is played, whenever the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, whenever parents discuss with their children the meanings of Memorial Day, or when Taps is sounded or Amazing Grace played at a military funeral or on Veteran's Day this memory must be kept alive.

Indeed, if historical memory were erased, our country would soon dissolve. VVAW is a vital part of a distinctive community with a long memory that reaches back through the years to the crucial events of the Vietnam war. In our hearts is an indelible record and witness. To be sure, this remembrance must focus especially on the future.

The history of the Vietnam experience may be expressed in many ways, but in the last analysis there is no substitute for retelling what the Vietnam veteran considers "the story of our life"—that is, the dramatic history to which society must bear witness.

The war in Iraq has breathed new life into the oldest and proudest Vietnam veteran's organization. Our membership is growing at a rapid rate, and the majority of our new members are Vietnam in-country combat veterans. They say they are looking for that unique bond that only exists between Vietnam veterans. A bond that expresses itself in the fact that we have been there, done that, and the insanity must stop.

Our recorded story must be boldly understood in relation to the present conflict. VVAW must continue to remind the world that all legacies come with a price, and that price must give meaning to all in the face of such loss and grief. VVAW must continue to exist as a unique entity. The purity of our message must be maintained. As we have in the past, VVAW must once again stand shoulder to shoulder as one impregnable unit to help banish the evil that has overtaken our land.

There can be no honor in what we carry deep inside us, unless it reminds us that we have done something that has made a difference.

Hey, Hey Uncle Sam, We remember Vietnam.