I was trained as an air traffic controller served in the US Air Force. My third assignment was at Pope AFB, located within Fort Bragg, NC, home of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1967. In mid February of 1968 the 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Airborne was deployed to Vietnam to answer and staunch the Tet Offensive.

Within 24 hours of the order to deploy elements of the 82nd, C-141’s (the largest military cargo planes in service) began arriving at Pope every 5 minutes. Between each set of arrivals, a C-141 would depart. The arrival/departure stream lasted for 3 days ferrying troops and equipment to Nam.

I worked in a radar unit by the side of the runway and the constant flow of landings, interspersed with takeoffs, awoke me to the absolute might of our country and our almost unlimited resources.

President Johnson flew in to say good bye and wish the first planeload of troops well. News media reported that as he left the aircraft, he said to the pilot, “Take care of my boys.” When I read that report, and as I remained at the radar unit by the runway, I felt heaviness in my heart, knowing that many of the departing troops would return in body bags.

Walter Cronkite visited Vietnam near the end of February, and reported this (in part) to the nation:

“For it seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.

To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”

I was not assigned overseas as was the 82nd, but would have gone, even though we wasted blood and treasure. They did their duty and served their country with honor. They, as all of those who served there, deserve our respect and hold a place of honor in history.

Many made the ultimate sacrifice; I remained by the runway.