My Daddy

Comments

John T Sandrowicz - July 5, 2020

Tell the Gunny Semper Fi

Joe Darinsig - July 5, 2020

Good for you. And Semper Fi to him !!!

Sgt. Mike Verrecchia, 63-67, USMC - July 5, 2020

Hang in there, Gunny !

MSgt Edd Prothro, USMC Ret. 1964-1984 - July 5, 2020

Suzanne,

I hope your father, The Gunny, is doing well as I too feel his pain and the constant reminder of exposure to Agent Orange. I contracted non-Hodgekins lymphoma in 2008, endured 12 rounds of CHOP chemotherapy, developed peripheral neuropathy in my feet and hands, had a bout with polypcythemia vera (and I never even knew a girl named Vera.) Now the pulmonologist says the severity of emphysema is also probably related to this exposure. And to think that we did this to our own troops.

I remember sitting in an ambush at a ford along the Song Cu De river, near the Namo bridge, when we heard the drone of an aircraft. He was flying low along the course of the river and liquid was spraying out the tips of his wings. We thought he was having an emergency, dumping fuel to make a crash landing in the river, so we reported it to COC. Well, they told us not to worry because he was just spraying the weeds and killing the vegetation on the river banks. In 1969, that was the first that I had ever heard of defoliant agents. But, I do remember there we fewer bugs and creepy crawlers that night than usual.

Aging, especially for Vietnam veterans, isn’t for sissy’s!! Semper Fi!!! Top Pro