Pete Thompson, a Vietnam-era Green Beret, served two tours.
I first met him at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado as a grad school intern in 1979 when I was attending the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
His professor manager was demanding he fill out lots of paper work.
He answered as I walked by his office to hear Pete tell him, "Charles, I don't fill out paperwork all day like you do. I do productive things. I get American companies to buy solar panels so we can get off our dependence on Mid-Eastern oil. Got it?!"
I liked this guy right away.
Remember, this was 1979.
Back then, he did not talk about Vietnam.
I got to spend time talking to him that summer and always found him bright, informed, widely read, and knowledgeable with remarkable energy.
Only once in 1981 did I hear him talk about how Vietnam affected him, briefly.
In an elevator at the Department of Energy for some reason some bureaucrats were prattling on and on about Vietnam.

Pete raised his suit pant leg, showed them his leg wound scars and said, "That is Vietnam. Is that anything you know about?"
They turned away.
You can hear some of Pete's story and the 10th Mountain Division here.
And on the Vail Veteran's Program here and here and here.
For a longer interview with Pete, see here.
I have seen his strength, bravery, grace and beauty at the funeral of a close family member, a Navy SEAL, who was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Pete comforted and kidded with the SEAL's three surviving children and wife.
It was a beautiful thing to observe.
After he returned from Vietnam he helped thousands of veterans over the years at his water skiing school in McQueeny Texas and his snow skiing school in Vail, Colorado.
He is part of a long chain of American vets helping other American vets to recover.
I am honored to have known him for 40 years.
Below is a brief insight to his noble post-Vietnam service.

Honoring the Vail Veterans Program

It started 15 years ago, when one of our Vail neighbors met a combat injured Army captain in a hospital far, far away. I wish I could have heard that conversation, but they made a pact that changed the world (something like: “You organize, I’ll get the troops”.).

That pact created the Vail Veterans Program (VVP).

This year that program is being honored for hosting over 3000 seriously wounded American veterans and their families to the magic of Vail, to the magic of skiing and horseback riding, to the magic of high mountains and long life vistas.

To commemorate this 15^th anniversary, the Vail Symposium hosted an evening presentation entitled “The Journey Home: Celebrating the Resilience of the Human Spirit”.

Three of the Vail Veterans Program’s Purple Heart recipients participated in a live interview:

---Colonel Greg Gadson is a West Point graduate with 2 Super Bowl rings who lost both legs in an IED explosion.

---Captain Dawn Halfaker, also a West Point graduate, was a Military Police commander when her vehicle was hit by RPG rockets.

---Lt. Jason Redman is a 20-year Navy SEAL whose team was chasing an Al Qaeda target when the machine guns started firing.

When you enter the room, you see old injuries --- missing limbs and angry scars.

When you listen, you hear tales of war, combat, injury and recovery.

When you leave, you remember the wisdom and grace of gaining another life.

These Purple Heart warriors answered questions posed by one of our local veterans, Captain Pete Thompson.

Pete asked a couple of easy questions concerning their entry into the military, but then asked the difficult and probing questions about their combat injuries : “Tell us about the moment you were wounded and what you remember; tell us about your life being saved and the medical healing; tell us about the psychological scars and your recovery.” Lt. Redman described walking

into a night ambush and being hit at close range by rounds from an al-Qaeda machine gun: “three bullets slammed into my chest, and two bullets hit my left elbow. Another bullet hit the left side of my head and exited through my nose, dislocating my left eye.”

Captain Halfaker literally had her right arm blown off when an RPG rocket hit her vehicle, yet she described driving, in the damaged and bloody Humvee, back to base and medical treatment.

Colonel Gadson whose lower body was mutilated by an IED explosion that threw him 10 meters out of his command car remembered his men, to include his commander, with mournful expressions, rallying to retrieve and stabilize him.

All three expressed sincere appreciation that the American military provided them with the best equipment and the most rapid responses. Lt. Redman said that the armor vest that shielded his chest was absolutely life-saving.

Captain Halfaker remembered that although her Humvee had been hit twice by RPG rockets and gunfire, it drove them away from the ambush.

And Colonel Gadson remembered the sound of the Medivac helicopter which took him to the field hospital where he received 129 blood transfusions. All three said that because of the military’s focus on the “Golden Hour”, the hour following a traumatic injury, they survived.

Then, Captain Thompson asked them what the Vail Veterans Program meant to them.

This is the question that always takes their breath away. This is the question that they always answer with their rejuvenated spirit. Unanimously, they said that this small, privately funded program, that brought them to the gorgeous mountains and the living activities of skiing and snowboarding was transformative. “It saved my life”.

They each emphasized the many different aspects of the VVP: family, friends, activity, involvement, humor, learning, learning that the only disability in life is a bad attitude.

Col. Gadson described sharing a life experience with his family on the back of a horse less than 5 months after his legs were amputated. In describing that moment away from the hospital, but securely with his family, he had a tear in his voice.

To close, Captain Thompson reiterated why the Symposium was honoring this noble program: “Please understand that combat injuries are something that we should all know about, because they are happening to our children, to our American soldiers, somewhere in the world, …..every day.

And the Vail Veterans Program is a transformative experience to rebuild confidence, rebuild friendships, and rebuild lives, …..every day”.

Pete Thompson is a part-time instructor for Colorado Mountain College and Vail Resorts, and is a member of the local veterans’ organization.

Here is an updated version of the article I prepare for the Vail Daily for

"Veterans Day". Please let me know your comments and feelings.

Pete

WE ARE THE VETERANS

Of today’s 327 million Americans, 18 million of us are veterans. We are the men and women, who years ago, in the prime of our young American life, put on a uniform and served on active duty in the armed forces of the United States……the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or the Coast Guard.

497,000 remain of the 16 million who served in World War II (1941-1945)

1,530,000 of the 5.7 million who served during the Korean Conflict (1950-1953)

6,251,000 of the 9 million who served during the Vietnam Era (1964-1975)

2,300,000 of the 2.5 million who served Desert Shield- Desert Storm (1990-1991)

4,800,000 served or are serving in the war on terror Iraq/Afghanistan (2001- today)

2,400,000 served in peacetime between conflicts.

17,778,000 Americans are veterans = 5.4% of U.S. population

First, we went to Basic and Advanced Individual Training, where we learned to drill and march, to shoot and clean a rifle, and we learned how to low-crawl under barbed wire. But then we went to Occupational Training, occupational training that we had chosen. We trained as infantrymen, firefighters, nurses, auditors, dog handlers, mechanics, or even as cybersecurity analysts. And we got paid.

That’s right, we got paid to learn computer skills, underwater salvage, geospatial imagining, surveying, and all sorts of medical skills. We built roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and runways. Some of us were trained and paid to be pilots, and others were sent back to college to study law, medicine, financial planning, and engineering. The military has 150 different occupations, and 800 different job titles.

I’m a veteran. I joined the military when I was a 19 year old school kid. I remember getting on a Greyhound bus with 50 other young men and driving through the night to Fort Ord, all the while eating candy bars and smoking cigarettes in the back of the bus. The next morning, I was awakened by a man dressed in a Smokey-the-Bear hat, who ordered me and my companions to get off the bus and “line up”, whatever that means. That’s when it began. That’s when they began changing me.

Within three days, my blue jeans, my candy bars, and all of my hair were gone. They gave me 3 ugly fatigue uniforms, 2 sheets, a smelly blanket, a bunk and a mop. It was hectic and confusing, but I could feel a focus on their part. They were trying to take us young fools to some “high ground”.

The Smokey Bear sergeants spoke loud and clear. They made us get up every morning at 5 dark-thirty, make our bed, clean our minds, and then “double-time” to training classes. They were going to make something noble out of our aimless youth.

Within a year, I was a corporal.

I’d been from Ft. Ord to Ft. Lewis to Ft. Sill. I’d learned a new language: “line-up, double-time, mess hall, grunt, roger, Zulu time”.

I’d learned the acronyms: NCO, CIB, FDC, M1, XO. I’d fired a bazooka, smelled tear-gas, crawled under live fire, spit-shined boots, peeled potatoes, but I had also learned to stand-up straight.

Within that first year, I’d been trained, qualified, and paid as a first responder, a surveyor, a heavy equipment operator, a firefighter, and …..

And the journey was just beginning. I served six years in the U. S. Army, to include one year as a “live-fire” artillery NCO, one year as a combat advisor to the Republic of South Vietnam, two years as a squad and platoon leader, and six months at Aberdeen Proving Ground testing new and exotic weapons.

I wasn’t a kid eating candy bars on the back of a bus any more. The Army had promoted me into real life experiences, with training, exercises, responsibilities, and teamwork. I had passed the tests and become a member of one of the greatest teams in the world: Army Strong.

I’m now 74 years old and I still feel like I’m a member of the team. But now it’s “the veteran team”, not the “active-duty” team. We’re the old guard. We came back and went to college on the GI Bill and started businesses.

Of today’s 18 million veterans, there are currently 2.5 million veteran-owned businesses.

Two hundred and nineteen of us became astronauts.

Twenty-six of us became presidents.

And we still make our bed every morning before the coffee, and we still stand up straight.

According to the Census Bureau, during our post-military civilian careers, we veterans earned 14% more income than an average American citizen.

I wonder why? 70% of us voted in the last election, while only 60% of non-veterans voted.

Why is that?

And, despite occupational hazards, veterans, especially long-serving veterans, live longer than their non-veteran civilian counterparts.

Wait a minute.

We earn more.

We vote more.

We live longer.

And we got to go on the most challenging life-changing rides of our lives, in helicopters, submarines, aircraft carriers, birddogs, etc. all while serving for something greater than ourselves.

Why doesn’t everyone serve?

It must be one of the best kept secrets in the world.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers....we veterans".

I have asked Pete over the years to write down his story. He's a gifted writer. This is his most recent response:

Bruce,

SOG teams were the big operations, mostly across the fence. But their FOBs were fully staffed with kitchens, hamburgers and coca colas.

I was with a MATA team. MATA had several levels of in-country operations. I was with the smallest, a tactical advisory team with the 61st ARVN artillery. We ate Vietnamese food and lived in Vietnamese compounds.

I was their Forward Observer (FO) advisor, maneuvering with the ARVN 5th Rangers.

I think you can find MATA team descriptions online. We were similar to the SOG teams but smaller, and we stayed mostly in South Vietnam. A couple of times I was right on the Cambodian border.

Some of my I&R boys would cross the river for information, but never for engagement.

As for telling or writing my story,...............no, I've put it away, and it needs to stay away.

And Bruce, nothing would come close to what those SOG guys did.

He cares deeply about this nation. I receive emails from him with musings, as here:

"The Founders wanted a republic; the electoral college was a mechanism to create that form of government. The college was designed to give some power to the individual states. The senate, with two senators from each state, is a similar governmental mechanism. The power of the purse, along with the power that comes from majority rule, goes to the House. That’s where the 319 square miles gets its way."

Bruce,

I need your help in researching a "military issue". I've looked but cannot find a reliable answer to the question:

What percentage of the US armed forces see active combat?

I'm not talking about serving in a combat theater. I'm talking about served in a actual fire fight, a real dog-fight, or a real naval engagement.

Some books and papers have addressed this question but the answers swing all over the place with all sorts of variables. Here are 2:

1. It has been said like this. 1% of the population of the US will serve in the military. 10% of the military is combat arms. 1% of combat arms will ever see combat.

That would mean 10% of the 1,400,000 active duty are combat arms = 140,000. 1% of them is 1,400.

2. One percent of active-duty personnel will actually fire their weapons at a live and present enemy. That's 14,000.

There are currently about 2,450 active-duty Navy SEALS, 7,000 Green Berets (which includes Delta), and maybe 2,000 Force Recon Marines.

Totaling 11,450, many or most of whom are "on ready alert" but never are in actual combat.

Bruce, help me get a straight and simple answer.

Bruce,

Yes, I had seen the Quora answers, but none of them really answered the question. Hell, none of them even tried to answer the question.

The closest was the quote that 10% of all active-duty are combat arms trained, and 1% of that 10% see actual combat. So 1,400,000 x 10% x 1% = 1,400 out of 1.4 million. That's 1% of 10% which is equal to 0.001%.

But then lets look at the question specifically for the Vietnam era.

1964 to 1973: 2.7 million Americans served "in country" in Vietnam. 58,158 dead, 304,000 wounded = total 36,158 divided by 2,700,000 = 13.4%. But..............most American troops who were in actual firefights or dogfights lived without being killed or wounded, therefore.................do you see where I am going with this?

Next I looked up the number of CIBs that were awarded, but then I saw this article: http://nation.time.com/2013/04/05/to-cib-or-not-to-cib-that-is-the-question/

If you ever discover any research, or reports that actually answers the question, please forward it to me.

Hey, I just realized an error in my math.

Concerning the Vietnam era veterans, I divided the 362,158 (wounded or killed) by the total who served in country (2.7 million) not the total in service (9 million) during the Vietnam era.

That changes the results from 13.6% to 4%.

This is Priceless! Note reference to the "Main Stream Media"...72 years ago!!️

What is meant by the modern term referred to as "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS"...The definition is found in 4 telegrams at the Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.

The following are copies of four telegrams between President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur on the day before the actual signing of the WWII Surrender Agreement in September 1945.

The contents of those four telegrams below are exactly as received at the end of the war - not a word has been added or deleted!

(1) Tokyo, Japan 0800-September 1,1945

To: President Harry S Truman

From: General D A MacArthur

Tomorrow we meet with those yellow-bellied bastards and sign the Surrender Documents, any last minute instructions?

(2) Washington, D C 1300-September 1, 1945

To: D A MacArthur

From: H S Truman Congratulations, job well done, but you must tone down your obvious dislike of the Japanese when discussing the terms of the surrender with the press, because some of your remarks are fundamentally not politically correct!

(3) Tokyo, Japan 1630-September 1, 1945

To: H S Truman

From: D A MacArthur and C H Nimitz

Wilco Sir, but both Chester and I are somewhat confused, exactly what does the term politically correct mean?

(4) Washington, D C 2120-September 1, 1945

To: D A MacArthur/C H Nimitz

From: H S Truman

Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end!

Now, with special thanks to the Truman Museum and Harry himself, you and I finally have a full understanding of what 'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' means