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One Vet's View

By Pat Finnegan

Thinking about McCain and how much I had no "Good Thoughts" about him. Him and his ilk I only thought of as: "Mile High Mass Murderers."

Years have gone by, and the hard-core radical soul mellows with the decades. Alan Dershowitz. Who's side is he on these days? I haven't a clue.

McCain and his funeral entourage went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall yesterday. I'm okay with that. He earned the right to go there. They massed at the center of the wall where the first killed of the Vietnam War and the last killed of the Vietnam meet and embrace each other.

Completing that circle of death that was the Vietnam War... If they looked real close, they would have seen near the bottom of panel 80 my brother's name, Dennis W. Finnegan. Dennis was KIA'd on October 31, 1972. It was the last day of his 4th tour. He started going over in June 1966, serving two full tours and an extension in the 101st Abn. Div. as a Combat Officer, either as a Platoon Leader or a Company Commander. His last tour was with the relatively safe Mach V, stationed out of Saigon and environs.

Dennis showed me his scars that earned his first 3 Purple Hearts. It was in the bedroom we shared as young brothers in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. It was one of the rare times we were both in New York and me out of the Army and Dennis between tours. I went on my hippie journeys across and around America and Dennis went back on his final tour in November 1971.

Dennis's body looked like they had already performed an autopsy with the added scarring of the far too many to remove shrapnel pieces embedded in his torso, arms, and legs. Every few inches there was another reminder of the days and nights in October 1966 and August 1967.

I loved my brother, but the "War" tore us apart. He was a career OCS officer, and I was a field refusal after eight months as an enlisted man. The war tore our family apart, and that rupture was never settled before my Dad died in March 1981.

Anyway back to "The Wall." Senator McCain had all the right in the world to visit the wall and visit all his fellow vets whose names are now carved in Vermont Granite till the end of time. I'll allow him to pay homage to the sacrifice that those Americans endured for our misguided Nation.

If it is ever announced that Trump is going to the "Wall," please let me know and I will be there in protest. I doubt he's ever been there and there should be laws that prevent that occurrence from ever happening. It's tough enough to get me to the local chain: "Stewart's" shop to buy the "Failing New York Times" paper and play the Lotto, but I will get my well cushioned posterior up out of my well-worn chair and down to Washington, DC to voice my outrage at the fat useless slug that shows his civilian REMF self at the "Holy Of Holies."

Pat Finnegan 3rd platoon, D Company 1/503rd 173 rd Abn Bde., USA 8/1/66-10/4/689