United States Navy Veteran.

This is the third in the series of US military service veteran plaques. Sorry about the download problems for the Marine pattern from yesterday. The link is now working. You can go back and get that one if you wanted it.

I want to thank all the vets who have written me in the last couple days in response to my comment and the patterns. Many of you told me your story of coming home from Vietnam. I won't get a chance to return all the email but I am reading every one. I am old enough to remember the end of the war. I was about 16. They were not good times for many of the men and women to come home to.

In many ways it was the beginning of a new era in American history. The media was becoming a watch dog of the government. The way the American people saw the war on television had changed forever. For the first time we saw the good, the bad and the ugly all in nearly real time. Patriotism had taken a beating and we had lost our confidence in the government.

What amazes me is that in all the email I received from the vets there was no bitterness in their words. As a whole these men and women were every bit the returning hero as the vets that returned from WWII. They went and did the job they were asked to do. If you read the history you will find that they did their job remarkably well. They were not given credit for that because they did what they did with one hand behind their back.

We still see the results from what the government learned about media coverage in Vietnam. Look at how sanitized the coverage in Afghanistan and Iraq is today. I'm not saying it's wrong or right but it's clearly censored as much as possible.

WWII ended up with parades and kissing in the streets. There was a clear end to the war and even more a clear winner. It's never been that clear since then and probably never will be again. What should be clear is that every one of our Veterans deserve at the absolute minimum a thank you.

I know this is a scroll saw site so I will get off the soap box now. This just happens to be a subject that I am passionate about. I will catch some heat for this post, I always do from people who differ with my opinions. That's fine and I will read those emails also.

Here is the link to yesterdays Marine Plaque if you want to download it also

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