Fake soldiers

My wife gets on me about my sometimes doubt of accuracy of men who claim Vietnam status. I said, “I don’t doubt everybody. I didn’t doubt the Marine helicopter pilot at the dog park here last week.” I tried to explain. “It’s the way somebody talks. It’s not just what he says, but how he says it.”

Like the “I Was a Navy Seal” post from a few weeks ago. Nobody goes around advertising his Navy Seal-ness, just like nobody announces to a stranger, “I’ve got PTSD” or “I’m 100 percent disabled.” I did see a man wearing a cap that said “Disabled Military Veteran,” but he was a distance away, so I could not thank him for his service and find out which service he was in.

My wife has a friend here, whose husband is a Vietnam veteran. An "airborne unit," the woman said. She said her husband’s unit has reunions, but he doesn’t go, because he is one of three survivors from Vietnam. All other members were killed there. I spoke with the man a few minutes a couple of weeks ago, but military service did not come up.

In Arkansas, my wife had a friend whose Vietnam veteran husband was dying in a hospital and “not taking it well.” I said I would visit, just spend some time. Then my wife said the woman said her husband was a POW in Laos. He was one of three Americans held in a jungle location. He escaped, the woman said, but he had to kill the other two Americans because they were trying to stop him. I checked lists of American POWs. His name was not listed.