Hi Weeble.

It was my pleasure.

You know who I really feel sorry for?? The guys who fought in Vietnam.

In my opinion, they got very bad treatment when they came home.

I was once at a rally (about 30 years ago), but it's still very fresh in my mind.

There was a table there with guy who served in Vietnam. No one walked over to them. It was like they had the plague or something.

I over heard someone saying "all those guys are on drugs, etc."

I marched over to the table and struck up a conversation with the guys there. I said "you served in Vietnam, right?" and the guy said "yes I did".

I said "My cousin Joey was stationed in DaNang, and he told me LOTS of interesting stories. One of those stories (and I was told this exactly 42 years ago), and I laughed so hard, that I had to share it with that guy (and with all of you).

My cousin was with his troop in DaNang, and they were resting for the night. It was very dark and there were sentries at their post.

Well, all of a sudden they heard rustling of the bushes and they all got up, grabbed their weapons and one guy shouted something to the effect of: "HALT, WHO GOES THERE??"

No response.

They did it again, and all of a sudden this GIGANTIC GORILLA COMES RUNNING OUT OF THE BUSHES.

I never laughed so hard after that story. The guys were scared to death that the Viet Cong were coming out of the bushes and it was some Gorilla!!!

Never knew there were gorillas in Vietnam.

So I'm speaking to the guy at the rally and I said: "I don't know if anyone has told you this, but I'd like to...and I thanked him for his service to our country.

He told me I was the first person to do that.

I was amazed and felt very sad that no one had done this.

That's when I made myself a promise that whenever I met a soldier I would shake his hand and thank him.

And I've kept my promise.

Melody