Define SERVICE.

A bit of a history.

Around the time I was being made and born there was this guy...Ho Chi Minh (click link for a detailed history review...)

 1945 Ho Chi Minh wrote a letter to President Truman asking for American assistance in gaining Vietnamese freedom from impending re-colonialization by the french.

In a betrayal of vietnam, Truman sided with the french reoccupation of vietnam

The letter to Truman was not declassified until 1972. And by this time the USA was up to it's armpits in betrayal alligators. Kennedy and especially Johnson just stirred the pot of dead american boys bodies. Lady Bird Johnson made a ton of money with the Johnson's Flying Tigers airlines running contract regular service to Viet Nam and bringing dead american bodies back home.

Nixon came up with the vietnam draft to give american boys a free vacation overseas. My # was picked and that was my eventual fate in February of 1970, "service" via the USAF. The war declined and I was there when the USA quit. I stayed in the USAF for various personal reasons as I was no longer able to "GO BACK HOME".

It took until March of 2010 until any human being used these words to me.   "Thank you for your service"   

It didn't really feel right or proper. Yet it now seems to be the cool thing to do.  I now mostly ignore them as they probably don't actually have a clue!

My skill was using a radar system to guide a cell of 3 B52 bombers, each one releasing 120 mk 82 bombs from each plane.

How many thousands of VietNamese did I kill in the name of "Old Glory" and we "lost" 58,220 for Truman's folly.

...I am NOT PROUD...