Some military person in Ken Burns's Vietnam War doc:
(Paraphrasing because I watched it yesterday): "We weren't prepared for Vietnam because the last war we fought was World War 2, which required very different strategy & tactics."
Me: *spits out my drink*
Are you not going to mention KOREA, motherfucker? I know the US got itself entrenched in Vietnam at the tail end of that, but what about motherfucking Korea? My grandpa was drafted. What do you mean the last war was WW2? Then what was THAT?
I found that very odd. Maybe that was somewhat out of context or something, but I just found it odd.
Is that what they mean when they call it the "forgotten war"? Is it really just not brought up even when military veterans are talking about military history?
It just seems weird to be like "the US military had no experience at all with this sort of conflict" when yes, they did. It was very RECENT experience at the time, but it definitely seems relevant.
Just not talking about it, huh?
That's ok, my grandpa never talked about it either.
The only things I know related to his military service in Korea are: he was the company carpenter, & he wouldn't go to fireworks shows with us when I was a kid because he supposedly hated the sound. He's been dead a long time & was mentally gone before that, so that's probably all I'll ever know.
So yeah, I guess you can just memory-hole that. Probably shouldn't though.
@artemis We had a very close older family friend when I was young who was like a father to my mom and a grandfather to me. He was in WWII. He was the company cook, so not directly in battle I don't think, but not entirely separated from it either. I heard him talk about the war maybe two times.
My other grandpa was in Korea. I don't think I heard him talk about it once in thirty-eight years.
There's no glory in war.
Artemis
A feral Kass (they/she)