GEN David Bramlett's Address to Vietnam Veterans

Remarks of GEN, Ret. David Bramlett at the Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

GEN Bramlett spoke to the many Vietnam Veterans assembled for this commemoration, delivering powerful remarks, which are printed her with his permission.

As a Vietnam War veteran, I deeply appreciate the honor to speak today, especially today when the nation has set aside today to recognize the Vietnam Veteran and to commemorate their service. We’ve grown old, we Vietnam veterans. A good friend, who brought the JROTC cadets here today reminded me in an email that, and I quote, “All of these cadets were born after 2004, and most of their parents were not born until after Vietnam ended.” That got me thinking – when I was their age in high school, and I was where they are, I would have been listening to a veteran of the Spanish-American War of 1898. As I said, we are growing old, and passing into history. With that reminder of our place in history, I have chosen to speak to three points. They deal with our legacy in our nation’s history. What is the legacy of those who fought in the Vietnam War and served in the Vietnam era. I don’t know what history will say, but I will share what I think. So, here it is, a soldier’s view -- Bramlett’s view -- of our legacy in three, short parts. First, we often forget the obvious – we did our Duty. By doing so, we preserved and continued the legacy – the profound tradition – established by our predecessors, just as those in uniform here with us today, represented by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, whose career is certainly an emblem of Duty served. In our day, we also answered the nation’s call, whether or not we personally wished to do so. Not everybody responded when called, and their actions -- stood then and stand now -in stark contrast to what we did. We are reminded of what Duty can demand as we remember our buddies – our long silent buddies, who rest here in the Punchbowl and our buddies who rest in cemeteries throughout our country and those who rest in places known but to God. They demand that we remember, and our nation remember, what Duty can require -- and did require -- from them. Duty required their lives. Not everyone has understood what Duty means, or requires, and certainly there was a national ambivalence, to say the least, about Duty to country during the Vietnam War. Based on what I saw when I returned from my second tour in late 1969 and in the following years, I never thought I would see the day when others would lament or regret that they avoided their Duty, or that they avoided the chance to serve their country. Now, the second part of our legacy … my view. And, I think this is unique to us, Vietnam veterans. We are a living, and will be a historical, reminder to the nation to respect always those who wear the uniform and serve the nation. Never again to confuse the warrior with the war. But it’s been that process of national realization and regret for confusing those who did their duty for the country with the decision to go to war and fight. The nation will not make that mistake again. This regret is now in our national DNA, and it won’t happen again. This is our unique legacy. On a trip to the mainland at the height of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, I stood in the Atlanta Airport and saw folks assemble along an exit corridor – as a young soldier emerged in his field uniform with his rucksack, the folks started clapping for him. I remember thinking, “Though it’s not for us, but it may be because of us.”

Gen, Ret. Bramlett, delivering his remarks.

Lastly, the third part, is a legacy provided by our families. The power and strength of the military family came to fore on behalf of our buddies who were unaccounted for – the Prisoners of War (POW) and the Missing in Action (MIA). Before then, military families were silent partners. I know as I was raised in the Navy, my father’s service.

The wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, and other family members of those unaccounted for, after a time, would not remain silent and began to unite in their demand for the nation to do more. In the late 1960s, the wife of a POW initiated a loosely organized movement that evolved, formally in 1970, into the National League of POW/MIA Families.

The National League of Families –they did not silently wait – they insisted to know what happened to their loved one and their collective voice was heard well beyond the military community and throughout the country, to include the government -- our government.

The government listened to their insistence for full accounting, granted them access to those agencies that might help, and recognized their collective strength as military families with a cause. We are indebted to them. They were, and are, the military family in action.

I think their efforts were, in many ways, the precursor of military families having a voice, having an impact. Indeed, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s when the military demographic was changing, to include far more families at all ranks than before, families became more formally recognized by the services for who they were and what they could do.

What did we see: Coincidentally, in 1970 a group of wives formed the National Military Family Association. Also, in 1970, the Navy created its Ombudsman Program. The Army declared 1983 to be the year of the Army Family. The various services created and supported entities that are self-defining: Family Support Groups, Family Support Programs, Key Spouse Program, the Work-Life Program, and the list continues.

There you have it. My best thoughts on our legacy – I have had 53 years to think about it -- the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans, in three parts:

We did our Duty, the continuation of a legacy left to us by those who served before us – we did not fail them. We reminded the nation, though it took many years, to never again diminish or neglect those who serve, who do their Duty to the nation. We watched the families of the Vietnam Veterans unaccounted for establish a voice and a presence that began the elevation of the military family to prominence and recognition – a force to be considered.

I know there has been a deep sense of pride within us, perhaps less stated in years past, but there nonetheless. Our pride in each other has never diminished, nor will it. Because each us answered the call to serve and to do our Duty – we did. No citizen can do more.

God bless this great nation -- that gave us the opportunity to serve it.

GEN Bramlett served in Vietnam from December 1965 to November 1966, as aide-de-camp for the Assistant Division Commander, 25th Infantry Division, and later as a company executive officer, C Company, 1-14 Infantry. He served a second tour, from September 1968 to August 1969, as the Commander of Co, 2-327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division and assistant brigade S-3, of the Division’s 1st Brigade.