For the Vietnam Vets

When we returned to the United States from Vietnam, we were not heroes as were the soldiers from Desert Storm and Afghanistan.  There were no parades and no one bought us drinks.  Personally, I was glad to have survived - they could call me anything and it didn't have much impact on me.  I was just happy to be back in the USA.

Now, though, in our old age, we're being rehabilitated - as our country recognizes the World War II veterans and the veterans of the recent "good" wars, we're being seen in a different light - not as baby killers but as people who answered the call of their country when it wasn't popular to do so.

As my tribute to you, I offer this quote from Shakespeare's "Henry V".  Henry has been campaigning in France but his army is now tired, depleted, and short of rations.   The vastly superior French army has trapped him and he's forced to fight at Agincourt.  The morning of the battle, one of Henry's generals laments they do not have more soldiers.  Let me give you the text from there.

Westmoreland

                                O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work today!
Henry

                                   What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland?  No, my fair cousin.

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honor
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

The battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415.  Shakespeare wrote Henry V from 1598-1599.

Some trivia about the battle, more in line with a Vietnam vet's sense of humor:

In this battle between the French and English, the French were overwhelmingly favored to win. They threatened to cut off a certain body part of all captured English archers so that they could never fight again. The English however, won a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. Which body part was it?

The body part which the French threatened to cut off the English after defeating them was, of course, the middle finger, without which it is impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew." Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say (like "peasant mother pheasant plucker," which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labio-dental fricative "f". Thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird"

[This story is not really true.  The French actually threatened to cut off the first two fingers of the archer's hand and not just the middle finger.]