To this day, some war stories still confound

than the Coronation, and fewer Americans showed interest in what once a momentous event that attracted global attention.

That doesn’t mean the Brits didn’t make every e ort to promote the event, spending a reported $125 million on the ceremony that attracted dignitaries from the Crown’s shrinking empire as well as o cial delegations from numerous countries. First Lady Jill Biden represented her husband, a move that some equated to a snub from the American aristocracy, but White House o cials claimed it was no more than a traditional diplomatic move. Turns out other American presidents have taken a pass on past coronations.

All of this doesn’t indicate that America’s bond with England is less than substantial, and we still watch with intrigue as the royal family continually makes headlines; but maybe were fed up with the more than pretentious lifestyle associated with the crowned ones coupled with the endless streams of controversy.

I heard a British commentator who explained Charles’ lack of embrace by the public by explaining he’s less likable that the recently passed

Queen or Diana. No doubt Charles is no rock star, but I’m thinking a regime that surrounds itself with jewels and riches while its citizens struggle to make ends meet might also have something to do with the lack of public acceptance.

Looking back to the that day in Nags Head, perhaps we were more infatuated with the story book tale of Charles and Diana, a love story we now know was mostly invented.

And that was before we had been flooded with royal news that painted a less than favorable picture of life in the castle. Maybe the bubble broke with Prince Andrew and Fergie’s misguided exploits, or perhaps we overdosed on Prince Harry and Meghan’s public pursuit of privacy. In any event, our lack of interest in Charles coronation wasn’t an exclusive American viewpoint. Surveys showed large number of Brits also didn’t watch the event, and big name performers like Adele, Ed Sheeran and the Spice Girls turned down invites to perform at the gala.

In any case, the who cares attitude may be a sign of things to come for monarchs universally. As one commentator said, “People just aren’t that keen on Kings anymore.”

JACK AGNEW Contributing Writer

Editor’s note: The following is part of a continuing series in which we ask readers to share a true story with us—any story—as long as it happened to them or a family member. Do you have a story to tell? Send it to news@ goochlandgazette.com.

One of my good friends in the late seventies was a former Marine infantry sergeant named Terry. He was leading a sixman squad on night patrol in Vietnam, when they were fired on from a village, with a machine gun. They were surrounded by rice paddies, and hiding behind the gravestones in a small cemetery on a little knoll outside of the village. They were exposed and had basically no cover. Rice paddies obviously being flat as water, and Terry was a great big guy.

The rules of engagement that Henry Kissinger negotiated (and the DC politicians agreed to) included maps designating certain villages as “friendly”, and therefore it was against policy for the US to hit them. Terry radioed for an air strike on the village, but the operator said, “I can’t, it’s a friendly village.” You can imagine how Terry reacted, he went berserk. A di erent voice got on the phone and said, “Son, I’ll have you know you don’t talk to my radio operator like that. I’m a full-bird Marine colonel! Don’t use language like that!” Terry shouted, “I don’t care if you’re God Almighty! If you don’t hit that village with an air strike, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands if we live through this.

THEY’RE

FIRING ON US!”

He threw the radio away and hollered to his squad, “They’re not coming!”

During those years in the military, we had a grenade launcher that was lethal. You could put a grenade down a rat hole, it was really e ective. Terry hollered to his grenadier, “I’m going to run forward and throw a grenade, and in the flash you better hit that gun, or we’re all dead!” He jumped up and went splashing through the rice paddies. Terry was 6’3” and weighed about 250, he was a big guy. Once he got to where he thought he was close enough, he planted his feet, threw a grenade, then heard a splash.

He was going to try to throw two of them, so when he heard the splash, he thought he had dropped the second one. When he looked down, he saw a flash, and that’s the last thing he remembered from Vietnam. He woke up in a hospital in the States three or four months later, in a body cast.

One day (after he had come out of the coma and was halfway on the mend), his grenadier came into the room laughing. Terry said, “What in the name of con-

WE WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR ISSUE-DRIVEN LETTERS

science is so funny?” “Do you remember that night in Vietnam?” he asked. Terry answered, “Yeah, everything right up to the flash between my legs.” He told him, “Yeah, well, they saw you coming, and they got you with a grenade right after you threw yours. But the reason I’m laughing is that you must have been scared to death when you threw your grenade, because it went o about a quarter of a mile behind the village.” Terry smiled at the hyperbole and said, “Yeah, I guess I was scared.” The grenadier continued, “But anyway, in that brief flash, man, I nailed them, I got ‘em all. You were so cut up, we just put you in a body bag, we knew you were dead, you were just covered in blood. But you squeaked when we threw you on the floor of the medevac chopper, so I cut your bag open with a bayonet, and the medic saved you. You came so close, we just knew you couldn’t be alive.”

Publisher Joy Monopoli ......................................... jmonopoli@RSNVA.com

Editor Roslyn Ryan rryan@goochlandgazette.com

Sports Editor Robby Fletcher rfletcher@powhatantoday.com

Classifieds Cindy Adams cadams@mechlocal.com

Production Manager Denine D’Angelo ddangelo@mechlocal.com

The Gazette welcomes your signed letters to the editor on topics of interest to Goochland residents. Letters must include your address and a daytime telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters. We do not guarantee that every letter received will be published. Letters reflect the opinions and positions of the writers and not The Goochland Gazette.

Send letters to: The Goochland Gazette 8460 Times-Dispatch Blvd. Mechanicsville, Va. 23116 Fax: (804) 344-8746 E-mail: editor@goochlandgazette.com

To this day, I still can’t believe that a Marine, or an Army o cer, or anybody with a fellow American out there in a rice paddy getting chopped to death with a machine gun wouldn’t go help them. It dogged me for years, I couldn’t understand it. I think I made my peace about it, knowing he probably did it so he wouldn’t get a letter of reprimand from the politicians in D.C. and then not make general, which would cut down his retirement money. At least there was a reason, no matter how stupid. I don’t know, but they wouldn’t help them. They would not hit that village, and it’s criminal. It’s criminal what we did to those kids in Vietnam. We tied one hand behind their backs, and told them to go fight a war. It was insane. And it left 58,000 dead.