Page 34 - DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2018-2

Christmas was coming, Nixon had been elected, and the Division thought it would be a great idea to give us all Christmas Cards with that big wonderful 1st Cav Patch, so we could send them all over the world and wish our family and friends a ‘Merry Christmas’ from Phước Vĩnh.’
During a late-night bout of rowdy debauchery at our Officer’s Club, infused with Tennessee sipping whiskey and Pabst’s finest beer, we all thought it would be a great idea to write the newly elected President and just let him know once and for all how we all felt. After all, ‘What the hell could he do, shave our heads and send us to Vietnam? Fat Chance!’
So, I found one of those 1st Cav Christmas Cards and proceeded to write with large bold strokes; “Merry F**king Christmas Dick! From the Officers of Charlie Troop fighting the damn war that you don’t have the balls to win!”
There, that should do it! I put my 2nd LT APO SF 96490 return address on the envelope, we all signed it, dropped it in the mail sack, and sobered up in the morning, and thought little about the outcome.
My brothers and I had hurled an insult born from the anger and frustration we all felt over our personal circumstance and the pain we shared over the injuries and deaths of our friends.
In a couple of weeks, we received a personal message from the White House. The reply was a message of kindness and dignity that instantly defused most of our anger and left us feeling pretty small and petty beneath the power of the Office of the President of the United States.
The war droned on, more lives would be lost, but President Nixon would show strength and boldness that would eventually lead to the return of our POW’s and the extraction of American combat forces from southeast Asia. We can only muse over what the outcome might have been had his immense popularity, following his huge re-election victory, not been destroyed by the Watergate scandal and his subsequent resignation.
As Charlie Sheen’s lines from the monologue in Platoon goes, “The war is over for me now, but it will always be there the rest of my days.”
One of my life’s lessons that remains with me is that dignity, good manners, and grace in the face of petty misplaced anger thoughtlessly hurled in your direction; should always be the first approach to resolve a conflict. Richard Nixon taught me that. – J. Bruce Huffman
WINTER 2018 / DFCS News Magazine / 35