Hello all - My name is Staci Dillahunty and I am the daughter of C.Lowell Shaw who was aircrew for the VO-67 - I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the letters and what not that should precede his name so you can recognize him - he was always just "Daddy" to me!
I am a returning college student and my instructor has assigned a paper DUE FRIDAY (9/26/03)over Vietnam. I feel like I have run into a brick wall because he has required us to site one military personnel that was in Vietnam that has "a positive view of the war". Hmmm, yeah, that's what I thought too! If ANYONE has a positive view, maybe even of just one aspect of it - if you have ANYTHING positive that you can say about the Vietnam war PLEASE e-mail me! I would very much appreciate any help anyone can give me!!
Thanks so much,
Staci (shaw) Dillahunty
dillahunty@amaonline.com
I served with your Dad in VO-67. He is a great guy. I live in Hurst, TX close enough to Plano, TX. Your Dad & I had lunch together about a year ago. I was a junior officer and also aircrew in VO-67. I was your Dad’s division officer (this means your dad and others of his caliber trained me, although I got to sign the paper work).
I served 3 tours of Viet-Nam, one being VO-67. I retired from the Navy as a CDR-USNR with 8 years of active duty and 13 years in the Naval Reserve. I also retired from a civilian career as a pilot (30 years) with American Airlines.
It almost sounds like a joke that a college professor would ask his students to find anything positive about the Viet-Nam war from a military person who served in Viet-Nam. If this guy is serious, he must have been a child from hippies, who protested the war with passion and raised a generation who loath the military.
There are many positives and negatives of the Viet-Nam War. I will not list negatives, I’m sure your professor has all them.
Positives:
Communism never expanded after the Viet-Nam War. It died in its tracks and started dwindling to its present state because of the Viet-Nam War and other considerations. Communism will dwindle further in the future.
Young American solders proved how great they are. Politics tied one hand behind our solders back, but they won most every battle. (TET- 1968, etc.).
The Viet-Nam villiages wanted us to prevail, but could not express this because of VC who came in at night and killed unmerciful all who protested them. The blood baths that came after the war ended proved this.
The US military could have won the war in Viet-Nam if the politicians would have done their duty. Set an objective and let your military do it. A politician should never try to run a military operation. This sounds like a negative, but it is positive in lessons learned.
Also: The American military serving in Viet-Nam in the 1960’s believed in their county. They wanted to stop Communism from spreading.
Sincerely,
Herb Ganner
VO-67,
USNR-CDR-RET
(817) 282-4408
email: ganner@attg.net
CDR, great post , You hit it right on the head, We never lost the War, we were never given the chance to win it by the politicos,Hippies, et al.Navy Seawolf Bill R. 1,616 documented combat missions, Helo Gunships in country, Vietnam. welcome home to all of our VO 67 brothers.
