I would like to thank Eddie Maddock, Teresa Kline, Prentice Cousins, Frances Nixon, GAASP, Wayne Johnson and Jim Dickinson for taking the time to read and comment on this article and to get involved as American Legion Post 93 is doing.

Dear GAASP, Our Armed Forces men and women take their orders from the Commander-in-Chief, you might want to contact him with your concerns.

Without taking sides, so I can love all my elected officials equally, I want to thank Eddie Maddock for taking the time to follow and comment on many of our efforts.

I hope that those of you that follow our efforts do share our stories with others as we all try to restore the beauty to “America and Arizona the Beautiful”.

Gary Chamberlain
“America the Beautiful & BagReadyJobs”
Empowering our nation’s youth
FolksvilleUSA@gmail.com
(928) 202-1186

As the Post Commander of Camp Verde American Legion Post 93, our Post would like to invite the public to join us on May 30, 2015 as we clean up Highway 260. All participants need to be 12 years of age. We would like to use this opportunity to work with the youth in our community.

Post 93 would like to thank Camp Verde Domino’s Pizza Manager Anastazia Morison for their contribution of five pizzas to support our cleanup efforts.

We would also like to thank Cottonwood Home Depot OPS Manager Tim Garner for contributing five “Unger” litter grabbers.

Finally, we would like to thank Vietnam veteran Gary Chamberlain “America the Beautiful & BagReadyJobs” and his team for making these contributions and this team effort possible.

Anyone wishing to help us with this effort may reach me at American Legion Post 93 (928) 567-6154 or my home (928) 592-3969.

Jim Dickinson, Post Commander

American Legion Post 93

Camp Verde, AZ

Wayne F. Johnson
1st Lieutenant
U.S. Army
Ordnance Corp

JUST WATCH THE SKIES. Modern jets, equipped with high-bypass turbofan engines, do NOT create contrails, with the rare exception of fighter jets, which have turboJET engines, and sometimes in >90% humidity, which is RARE. All trails are SPRAYS and geoengineers are talking about it openly now. Google David Keith and Ken Caldeira. Not a theory anymore!

You could trust First Sergeant Jim Johnson and Captain David Staley mentioned in his comments with your life!

My memory of First Sergeant Jim Johnson while I was one of his many troops was that he was 7’-6” tall and as stern as a steel pipe. When we reunited in Texas a few years ago he told me that he was only 5’-10 ½” tall and weighed 155 pounds. We both laughed!

Over the years we have kept in touch, for he is just one of those guys you always admire for their service to country as a military leader and a community leader.

My First Sergeant Jim Johnson’s email to me in response to the letter to the Editor titled “Only surviving combat soldiers can tell their story with any accuracy” is as follows:

“Yes Gary, I remember that day pretty well. We had approximately 16 men hit that day including 3 medics on the track just behind us.

I loaded Edward Moldavan and Francis Schmautz on a chopper with a medic trying to keep them alive but they were probably already dead.

Later Captain Staley and I loaded some more soldiers from the 8th Cavalry-First Cavalry Division who were defiantly dead.

When I went to the medic down at the Chu Lai hospital the next day to check on the wounded, I raised hell with the medic because they hadn’t even washed your face from the previous day’s battle.

That has been a few years ago hasn’t it?

Hope you are all doing well.

You all have a good Memorial Day and God bless both of you — Jim

As I was hanging my American flag up today in remembrance of Memorial Day (May 25, 2015), I was revisiting my last minutes in Vietnam after being air lifted out of the field, full of morphine with my best buddy laying next to me in a UH-1 helicopter. I was going home. I was one of the lucky ones so to speak.

More importantly to this story is my reoccurring memory not of my circumstance but of the two American soldiers that lost their earthly voices on October 27, 1967. They did not return home and their Western Union telegram to their families was much different than mine!

I didn’t know either of these two American combat soldiers but I was on the friendly side of an NVA bunker when I spotted them. These two wounded American soldiers had encountered the full wrath of enemy NVA machine gun. I will never forget the desire to help them and be close enough to know that they were so riddled with bullets that their fate was most likely sealed but we stilled tried to help them. Leave no soldier behind was instilled in us!

In the end, try as we might to help them, they perished on that day only to be remembered as true “Hero’s” that gave of themselves for the good of their combat partners and our country.

Though I have my own memories of my Vietnam experience, I’m alive, able and willing to help tell their story. As veterans and families of fallen soldiers, we must keep their stories alive with the hope that those who live in this country somehow appreciate the sacrifice others have paid for them.

The take-away message about these two United States combat soldiers is that there were 58,220 Armed Forces members that lost their life in Vietnam so the rest of us could try to make them proud of their service and our accomplishments.

For me, my heart has much empathy for those that serve our country and especially our combat soldiers.

What do you do to make America worth them dying for us?

Gary Chamberlain
Vietnam veteran 1967
Chu Lai, Vietnam
B Troop, 1st Squadron, 1st Armored Cavalry
Cornville, AZ USA

For sure all volunteer Litter Lifters, including the Air Force, deserve at least a “Thank You” for caring enough to actively fill the role as public servants.

In the meantime, enjoy a great American Holiday – Memorial Day – honoring those who truly gave. Without their ultimate contribution it’s possible none of us, or at least some of us, would even be around to be litter bugs and impose on others to clean up the mess.