IRON MOUNTAIN — As we come up to Veterans Day and our celebration of veterans, I thought it would be a good time to share with all of you this article, author unknown, given to me by the widow of one of our veterans. Hopefully you will stop and reflect on the sacrifices of our veterans and some of the conditions they lived through fighting for our freedoms.

The Things They Carried

They carried P-38 can openers, watches and dog tags, plastic bottles of insect repellent (bug juice) and rifle lube, oil, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, Darvon and APCs w/codeine, ponchos and poncho liners, Kool-Aid, three or four canteens of water, iodine tablets, C-rations stuffed in socks and wrapped around their web belts, LRRP rations, sterno and foil-wrapped heat tablets.

They wore standard fatigues and jungle fatigues that ripped from sweat-rot, jungle boots without socks, sweat towels around their necks, bush hats, flak jackets, and steel pots with camo covers and elastic camo bands, Alice packs and ruck sacks. Pilots carried “chicken plates.” They carried M-16s, M-14s and M-14 E2s, and magazines of ammo in bandoleers or pouches or cardboard boxes of 20. They carried trip flares and trip wire and overhead parachute flares in silver tubes, Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns and cans or belts of ammo, M-79 grenade launchers (thump guns) with bandoleers of HE or canister and Frechette rounds, M-2 .50 cal. machine guns, 81 mm mortar tubes, baseplates, bipods and mortar rounds, CAR-15’s, Stoners, Swedish Ks, 66mm Laws, Starlight scopes, Remington or Savage 12ga shotguns with “00 buck & Slugs, .45 & .38 caliber pistols and silencers.

They also carried the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence. They carried the wailing sound of bombs dropped far away by B-52s. They carried C-4 plastic explosive in 1-kilo bricks or in lengths of det cord (that they also used to heat their C’s), fragmentation and concussion grenades, CS gas grenades, assorted smoke grenades (red, green, yellow, white), WP grenades, plastic-covered maps and map boards, PRC-25 radios and spare tuning crystals, knives, bayonets and machetes.

Some carried napalm, CBUs, and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworm and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried the smells of the jungle, swamp and rice paddies, of wood smoke and village marketplaces, of Agent Orange spray, diesel exhaust and of burning diesel smoke from latrine barrels, and of things burning in general.

They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones-real and imagined-often lightly wrapped in brown plastic bags. They carried little US flags folded in their shirts. They carried love for people in the real world, and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: “Don’t mean nothin.”

They carried memories.

For the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity unknown today in those so young. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people cried, or wanted to, but couldn’t; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said, “Dear God,” and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly, and cringed and begged for the noise and concussions to stop and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die. They did their best as they carried the traditions of the United States military and their unit, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried their wounded buddies. The carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations.

They carried the soldier’s greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world, and the weight of every free citizen of America. The carried the weight of a war their countrymen didn’t want.

They carried each other.

Author Unknown

The Dickinson County Veterans Alliance has been working hard to provide a great Veterans Dinner on Friday, Nov. 11. The dinner will be at the American Legion Post 50 on River Avenue in Iron Mountain. Ticket price is $20 per person, which includes dinner and dessert. There will be a cash bar. Get your tickets soon, as they are going fast. Tickets are available at Dickinson County Veterans Office or American Legion, DAV or VFW Posts.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Nov. 7 — Dickinson County Veteran Affairs Board Meeting at 8 a.m. at the American Legion Post 50, River Avenue, Iron Mountain. The public is welcome to attend.