Vietnam's Apocalypse Shadow
84th Combat Engineer Battalion, Co. B 4th Platoon, 1969-1970: I was in Vietnam from Sep 1969 to Nov 1970. I extended so I could get an early out when I got home. I was in the 84th Eng. Battalion Co. B 4th Platoon. Later, I was transferred to the 513th Eng Bat who need replacements due to casualties. Rick Rogers and I were in the 84th together.
For years, since I came home from Vietnam, I have been looking for my best friend Rick Rogers. Every few months I would check telephone information for his listing in Rocky Mount North Carolina. I even sent for driver's license information to North Carolina, and everything else I could think of. No such luck.
Last night I tried the Internet again in hopes that this time I would find a listing. I found a Richard Rogers listed in his home town and decided to call when I got home from work, due to the time difference between the east and west coast.
When I got home I called and a lady answered. I asked for Rick and she said, "Just a minute." I thought great at last I found him. But it was his father. I told him who I was and who I was looking for. He said, "That would be my son, Rich." I asked how I could get in touch with him. He told me the following:
Rick came home and he was very bitter over the war and the treatment given to Vietnam Veterans by our countrymen and the Government. He became an alcoholic and lost just about every thing. Rick never was able to let go of the war, or it of him. He wanted nothing to do with the Vietnam Memorial and felt that the welcome home parade given by North Carolina was 20 years too late. Rick died in a auto accident, drunk and very bitter even to his death.
Rick has a son, who is the same age as my daughter, Lori. Rick's father is going to have him contact me to find out about his dad and what he was like before the war took him. He told me that Rick tried to find me several times, and knew I was from Long Beach, California. That was true for many years, but then I was with the Long Beach Police Department and my phone was unlisted, so we never got together this side of the war.
I guess Rick will always be "forever young" in my mind. For so many of us, the scars of Vietnam never heal, and the apocalypse shadow of Vietnam grows longer and sadder for those too wounded of heart. It is true our countrymen turned on us, for a long time, and our government still tries to deny our needs from the war ... but it is also true there is solace, backup, and some one willing to walk-point in those who were there--if only asked.
As for Rick's son ... I will tell him the truth about his father, and what a good and decent man he was.
Jerry Poss
