One Veteran's View

By Jose D De La Torre

One Veteran's view is a personal reflection in essay form of a particular day of every November over the decades.

it is a recreation of past essays and only recently has become more of a reflection of the ever changing values

among the populace in general and among the Vietnam veterans of America specifically.

while it is a pe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jose D. De La Torre
• Release date: Jan 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869075598

Book preview

Jose De La Torre One Veteran’s view

Copyright © 2023 by Jose D. De La Torre

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 979-8-218-95175-7

Printed in the USA by 48 Hour Books (www.48HrBooks.com)

Table of Contents

Dedication

Authors Note

Preface

Part One: The Early Years

1977

1978

1979

1980

1983

1984

1985

1987

1989

1994

Part Two: Impending Turmoil

1997

1999

Y2K

2001

2002

2004

2005

Part Three: Approaching Calm

2006

2007

2008

2009

Part Four: Change of Perspective

2011

2012

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Epilogue

Dedication

To my Children Francisco, Angela, Miguel and Santo who never saw this world, but never left my memory. To my Wife with whom I had the cosmic good fortune to reconnect with, recommit to after a thirty-year hiatus, and reaffirm my promised vows upon entering the military and ensuing years of being a US military veteran.

Authors Note

I would be remis if I were not to acknowledge the literary contribution of Sheila M. McMullin. While all of the narratives compiled in this project have their genesis in my personal mind memory and experiences, I would not have undertaken this endeavor save her encouragement. A published author in her own right, she has inspired me over the years to chronicle and publish this book. Originally a legacy project, she instilled in me the confidence to write a part of my story, and more importantly to share and feel confident of its acceptance by my children, my family and my village.

Preface

This book is a somewhat chronological perspective of what veterans’ day has meant to me over the decades. All of the pages had their origins in thoughts and essays for my own edification and perhaps for submittal to local newspapers and magazines. There were three that were published by the international organization THIS I BELIEVE.org. A few others were submitted to the new Yorker, Los Angeles Times and Denver Post. They were however, not published. My literary endeavors began in the late seventies with pen on paper handwritten journals. Some were lost to park benches or fast-food restaurants. others survived only to be discarded, rewritten or updated and later filed in cabinets and bookshelves. After more than one such journal met a destructive end due to instances with crayons jams and jellies, I moved to my first computer in 1984. I transferred those remaining and recreated other essays from memory. Pencil, ink and paper were a bit less permanent than media of magnetic ink, so computers became my next archival outlet. Alas they proved harder for me to master until the MACINTOSH SE30 and subsequent Apple products, and so another migration took place. Networking two systems together was beyond my mental capacity at the time, so migrating one document to another went the slower route of typing and retyping from word perfect to Apple Works to the current and final media of Microsoft Word. Eventually they would be moved back to the Mac licensed Microsoft suite. Temporary storage such as floppy optical and laser disk and even thumb drives, I learned, are also subject to corruption, so I recently migrated all prior documents onto my laptop for storage in the virtual clouds of ones and zeros residing somewhere in the Ether. I have taken literary liberties so that on occasion, many of the words and paragraphs describing my feelings or emotions in the decades of the 70s 80s and 90s bear resemblance to my more recent writing style. As previously mentioned, the migration of memories, conversations, parades, picnics and sporting events became discontinuous over the years, though such memories and fragmented sentences remain with me today. (don’t ask me why I can recall conversations from decades past but not what my wife said moments ago. Perhaps It’s a male brain thing). My intentions were to capture the state of being I was in as close as I can still recall. As an example, I know I talked with more veterans than the ones mentioned here, however in the interest of clarity and justice to those conversations, I focused on the positive ones and left out the rage filled tirades of some who were deeply disturbed. Such conversations are also condensed to their essence, as so much of the specifics would be unrelatable to those without common points of reference. The acronyms and military jargon for example, are only meaningful to service member, and irrelevant or superfluous to the rest. Though the genesis of this book has its origins in the late seventies, there are gaps in both years and content that are a result of life changes that focused my life elsewhere. Often such life events as holidays, births and deaths made it difficult to pick up where I left off, and more times than I can count such reflections became dated, irrelevant or just plain inconsequential as my philosophy of life changed and evolved. By way of a spiritual example, I find myself to be prolife, but not necessarily anti-abortion. I don’t believe myself to be in contradiction because I can never be placed in that situation where it will be my choice. As was pointed out by Senator Kamal Harris, in her questioning of Brett Kavanagh, there are no laws governing Men’s bodies. Lastly, I do not wish to imply here that I speak for or express the feelings and philosophical outlook of Veterans across America and across time, hence the title. In these tumultuous times of societal stress and fear, it is my intention to convey the notion that Veterans of Vietnam, WWII, Korea and middle east wars, are vastly different in perspective, outlook and most of all responses to our respective experiences. The battles, both physical and psychological, are unique to our Eras, as is our reactions to them. A common thread however amongst all, is our love of country and our sacred oath to the constitution. And like everyone else, we are people with emotions burdens and needs. But if there is anything that distinguishes us from everyone else, it is in the way we chose to serve this country and society in which we are privileged to live. In the aftermaths of the Election of 2016, so many people expressed the real concern of what was to happen to our country following a distinctly surprising result. Many news and political pundits, confident in the institutions of our government, believed and expressed the sentiment that all will turn out well. The pendulum swings periodically too far left or right and eventually returns to a measure of stability and equilibrium. That was certainly my belief as well. Yet as scandal after scandal tarnished the presidency and the white house, as greed nepotism and corruption became more exposed and tolerated, the uneasiness increased in most Americans. A fear surface and grew that irreparable damage was being inflicted on the noble experiment that is the United States of America. The famous quote of Benjamin Franklin A republic madam, if you can keep it loomed large in the fear and psyche of those that saw a foreshadowing of turbulence in our society. This book began as a semi biographical compilation of thoughts, feeling and emotions over the span of decades. It evolved somewhat into a personal realization of how fragile our form of government is, the role active and veteran military members play in it, and the responsibilities each of us has in ensuring it’s success.

My country, may she always be right in her intercourse with other nations. But my country right or wrong. Adapted from the original quote by Carl Schurz

Part One:

The Early Years

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1977

I was honorably discharged from the United States Air Force in April of 1977. My original discharge date was to be January 19, 1978. In the military, you have an end date to your deployment, and technically speaking, until a minute before midnight of such a date, you are eligible to extend, reenlist or for that matter be drafted as an involuntary reservist. There was, however, little chance that any of such actions were going to happen to me. The flip side is that you can request an early separation date based on extenuating circumstances such as financial, family hardships, etc. Other reasons that can be stated are also employment or career advancement opportunities denied a person, if military deployment interfered with such. In my case, I had already determined, and informed inside recruiters, that I was not intending to reenlist. As there were no manpower constraints on the field I was in (Radar Maintenance) meaning there happen to be enough personnel that could backfill a particular vacancy, my chances for early separation would eventually be approved. Request could be made up to a year in advance, and on a prior month, there arose a job opportunity with the now extinct Pacific Bell corporation later that fall. I requested a release date of November 1977. Coincidentally and fortuitously, the radar site I had been stationed at was to be decommissioned, which is to say it became obsolete. Most of the personnel would be deployed across the nation, some overseas, and many were to be involuntarily reassigned. As a result of the manpower reassignments, my request was accelerated to the spring of 1977. fortuitous in one sense, disconcerting in another. The job prospects at Pacific Bell did not materialize and other job options at General Electric, GTE (now Verizon) likewise never came to be realized. Later on, I learned much had to do with the federal government curtailing monopolistic practices, and in hindsight may have been for the best. But with my future a little less certain, I restarted my college education and at the same time was able to procure a job in the grocery industry. Union benefits and fairly stable work weeks allowed me the dividends a newly married couple could ask for, such as buying a house and starting a family therefore I had few complaints at the time. The housing situation began the first of many price and inflationary bubbles that year. With a little luck and timing, we were able to buy into a starter home in the town we grew up in, though much to the chagrin of my new bride who disliked the town we grow up in.