SYNOPSIS: PFC Oral R. Terry was a radio operator/seaman aboard
a maintenance
boat. On May 3, 1968, the craft was
on a damage control mission on the Ham
Luong
River in South Vietnam. On the mission, Terry's job was radio guard.
About 4:45 a.m. a splash was heard by two members on the boat.
They did not
investigate. PFC Terry was to have awakened his relief at 5:00 a.m.,
but his
relief awakened himself at 0700 hours.
He did not question why Terry had failed
to awaken him.
Normal activities were carried on the
remainder of the day until mid-afternoon,
when the crew noticed that Terry was not present.
A search of the area was
conducted without success.
Terry was a non-swimmer,
and was last seen wearing a
flak jacket and a steel helmet.
Because there was no proof that Terry died, he
was classified Missing in Action.
591 American Prisoners of War were released in 1973,
but nearly 2500 remained
missing, prisoner or unaccounted for.
Thousands of reports have been received
by
the U.S. Government that indicate hundreds of
Americans are still alive and
held
captive in Southeast Asia, yet the
government seems unable or unwilling to
successfully achieve their release.
Policy statements indicate that "conclusive
proof" is not available, but when it is, the government will act.
Detractors
state that proof is in hand,
but the will to act does not exist.
Whether Oral R. Terry survived to be captured is not known.
Whether he is among
those believed to be still alive today is uncertain.
What cannot be questioned,
however, is that America has a moral and legal
obligation to secure the freedom
of those who may still be illegally held by the
communist governments of
Southeast Asia. It's time we brought our men home.
WHAT IS A VET?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can't tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another -or didn't come back AT ALL.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".
Remember November 11th is Veterans Day
"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."
Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC
