A Personal Mission
The following article was written by Brenda Bolinger, CMC Communications Department. Veterans Day 2024 was a fitting milestone for Robin Bartlett ’67 to check off a bucket-list item: returning to CMC’s Athenaeum to share his experiences as a Combat Infantry Platoon Leader during the height of the Vietnam War. Bartlett’s captivating account of serving as a 22-year-old […]
A Significant Day
March 29, 1973 was the last day U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. The day honors the 9 million Americans who served during the Vietnam War era (1955-1975) and the 58,281 who did not return. The day is very significant to Vietnam veterans. It is significant because we were NOT welcomed home. Many returning veterans were […]
Code Words
I challenge you to remember these two code words next time you greet a Vietnam Veteran: Welcome Home! These words are significant to Vietnam Veterans. They are significant because we were NOT welcomed home. We were spat upon at airports, called baby killers on the street, refused to wear our uniforms in public, and hid […]
Honor Flights
I made a presentation on Veterans Day event at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. While there I had the good fortune to talk with two Korean War vets who had recently participated in the Honor Flight program. Both expressed great enthusiasm. One of the men talked about his experience in detail. With tears in […]
Welcome Home
The phrase ‘thank you for your service’ started to be used in the late ‘90s. It became even more popular in recognition of the heroism on the part of firefighters, police, and first responders in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th and the War on Terror that followed. The saying is […]