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Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!
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Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:43 AM

My wife and I went to Augusta, Ga last weekend to visit a relative at the Augusta Burn Hospital. After that we went to Golden Corral for lunch. My wife went to fix her pakte and I was left on purse duty, you know watch my purse while I go get my lunch. There was this man a little older than me sitting directly behind my wife who had on a retired navy cap, and motorcycle vest that had multiple duty badges from 1960 to 1987 on it. So I asked him how he was doing and told him I appreciated his service and sacrifice, and that I served 11 years in the USAF. Three badges stood out to me, all 2 year tours in Vietnam. I asked if he did 3 tours in Vietnam, and he said yes he was there off and on for 7 years. I said that is crazy, how did you draw the short straw for so long and what he said made me have a whole different level of respect for the man. He was a gunner on a river boat. He said that he felt since he knew sorta what he was doing and was used to it, he was keeping some other 18 year old kid from having to go through what he had endured and come out of. That my friends is a generation like the ones before that this current generation will never understand or come close to equalling. I would have bought his meal if you didn't pay when you come through the line in Golden Corral, but it was really a good day! GOD Bless all those that have served our nation graciously, bravely, and with the knowledge that they at any time might have to make the ultimate sacrifice so that others can live safely and peacefully here in AMERICA!

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:46 AM

That is awesome. When we stopping fighting amongst ourselves we realize we have some really good people in this country

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:49 AM

That’s awesome man. Glad to hear that. Health advice- Golden Corral is like filling your insides with gasoline. Baaad stuff.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:54 AM

But the rolls are so guuuuuddd!!

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Really? Muschamp eats there all the time and...


Feb 1, 2020, 1:40 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]

He’s the picture of health.

~JKB

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:51 AM

Kudos for the story and many thanks to the Vietnam vet's contributions.

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Don't let the "He should just do what best for him" people


Jan 31, 2020, 9:52 AM

on this site read this. They ain't gonna like it.

Or even understand it.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:54 AM

Thank You for sharing.

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Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 9:54 AM

Army personnel served 12 months tours of duty over there, and Marines served 13 months. Was a two year tour of duty standard for Navy personnel?

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Re: Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 9:58 AM

I have no idea, can ask my neighbor he was there for 2 tours. This vet said he was there off and on for 7 years and had badges for it. Didn't ask how much time past between tours. He was as nice a guy as you would ever want to meet, but also looked like he could take care of himself. I am not so sure he couldn't serve another tour if needed, lol!

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Re: Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 10:02 AM [ in reply to Great story, but I have a question ]

Read my mind was going to post similar. Also in terms of medals and ribbons you don’t wear 3 for the same thing, it’s one with little pins in it to signify multiples but this sounds like a vest with badges not the uniform medals And ribbons I’m thinking of.

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Re: Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 10:11 AM

No these weren't medals, just cloth badges that had Vietnam Vet 1961-63, 1964-65, 1966-67. He also had pins, ribbons, and what looked like original service medals on his vest also. He also had a super nice 1995 Harley-Davidson ultra Classic! I wanted it so bad!!!!

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Re: Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 11:43 AM

Sounds like on his first tour he volunteered for another year. Then he did two more tours. That also makes sense with what he said about staying on and reducing the need for another newbie. BZ to him! Semper Fi!

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Re: Great story, but I have a question


Jan 31, 2020, 4:57 PM [ in reply to Re: Great story, but I have a question ]

I can only speak from an Army standpoint. My first tour was part of 65 & part of 66 and second was 67-68, each 12 months in length. I assume his patches reflected similar timeframes.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 9:59 AM

Thanks for sharing and most of all thanks for recognizing his contribution and showing your gratitude. My wife's uncle served multiple tours including being a POW and WIA from being shot in the face. He received a Purple Heart but he's suffered from the side effects of war. He's a tormented soul, a good man, but his demons are tough to for he and his family from time to time. Those guys really went through hell.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 10:05 AM

I dont think you ever come back from something like that and arent totally changed regardless of war. My mom was engaged to a guy in the Pacific during WWII. She said he came back a totally different person when he came home. eventually they broke up.

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I was in line at a grocery store in Monroe, N.C. over a year


Jan 31, 2020, 10:04 AM

ago. The man behind me had on a Vietnam Veterans hat. We struck up a conversation. Seeing we have about the same number of items, I asked him to go ahead of me and told the young lady at the counter I would pay for his groceries. He thanked me and I thanked him for his service.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 10:17 AM

Today’s generation does have some of the same. I hang out some with a retired Army Artillery Colonel. His son, Army Special Forces, served 3 tours in Afghanistan, Silver Star. It’s such a small sliver of our country’s overall population that serves in the military and a still smaller sliver that serves at the pointy end of the sword. You just don’t hear about it.....at least not enough in my opinion.

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God Bless our veterans and military***


Jan 31, 2020, 10:28 AM



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Re: God Bless our veterans and military***


Jan 31, 2020, 10:54 AM

I was fortunate that my 2 tours of service were over when VN occurred. Know I woudda never been that strong. Hats off to those with his great attitude and service. Thank you for sharing.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:02 AM

Thanks for sharing God Bless all the vets who have defended this great nation. Thank you

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:06 AM

Thanks for sharing such an interesting story. I usually wear my AF cap when out and will speak to any vets close by to learn about their service. I think there were a number of guys like the one you spoke with who served additional tours or time feeling their experience and skill set would help save lives. A distant cousin who was born in Piedmont and grew up in Washington state kept returning to his Vietnam unit after being wounded several times for such a reason. Was awarded eight purple hearts. One story noted he left his hospital bed in a gown, not waiting for discharge, to rejoin thinking his experience and skill set would save lives. Was a Medal of Honor recipient.

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the only good politician is a dead politician.


Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:38 AM

As a Marine platoon leader (combat engineer) in Viet Nam my men rotated home at different times as we ddi not go over as a unit but were always losing or adding Marines. On several occasions I would be somewhere when I would run into one of my old platoon members that had rotated home. Invariably, they would tell me they had come back because they had rather be in country than back in the states shining brass and polishing their boots. Other than the chance of being shot, or blown up, many Marines liked being in country. None of the ones that came for a second tour were married in my platoon.

I did have a fellow platoon leader, who later became our Company Commander, (Jim Nollenburger, Company C, 9th Engineer Battalion) who served at least two tours and possibly more. These guys were very valuable, as they had experienced just about everything and passed it down to those who followed.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:55 AM

Semper Fi brother! Thanks for your service. As for being deployed to a hostile AO it hasn’t changed. To me it always beat being in the states. All the BS just seems to disappear and it’s down to the brass tacks so to speak.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 11:05 AM

!0-4 brother and thanks .....Semper Fi!

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:51 AM

eating at golden corral? LOL yikes

youve gotta be 60+ years old. thats embarrassing.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:58 AM

Sadly although proudly, I am over 60 years of age, but it has been a good ride, married to the same woman for 41 years, 3 successful children and 4 wonderful grandsons.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 11:59 AM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]

I think you missed the point of the story. What a jerk response.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 12:25 PM

I wonder why that kid’s pulse is so low??

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"Anybody that says Coach Brownell is the best coach to come through Clemson is going to start an argument." -JP Hall


Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 12:29 PM

because im not trying to win fake points on an internet forum and just call it how i see it.

golden corral is in the bottom 10% of places to eat. wouldnt catch me dead at that establishment.

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Your pulse ratio on TNET probably relates to how people


Jan 31, 2020, 5:21 PM

outside of TNET feel about you too.

Message was edited by: MyfavOrange®


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He post a very interesting story on TNET about a verteran


Jan 31, 2020, 12:00 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]

and all you can say is something insulting!! You do not have to be old to eat at the Golden Corral! If that is where he or his wife wanted to eat, then so be it. SMDH!!!!

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 12:03 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]

When we used to come out of the field at Lejeune, we would mount an assault on GC. After we showered of course! Bunch of teens and early 20 somethings.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 11:15 AM

That's funny! I remember when we were still in training in Basic School and we went to Little Creek, Virginia to practice our amphibious landings and were aboard an LCT. I was an acting platoon commander at the time so as a company officer I got to eat in the board room with the ship's officers. I think they must be on some sort of plan where they buy their own food because when they served our plates it wasn't much more than an appetizer. Our Company Commander, a major, asked if that was all there was and the ship's captain said "yes". At that point our CO asked if they had any peanut butter and bread and he said yes". So after dinner we all made peanut butter sandwiches.

The Navy way underestimated the eating capacity of Marines after a day of attacking a sandy beach ..... even though no one was shooting back at us!

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 11:33 AM

LOL. Almost 5 years of sea time here. Early on I did do mess duty in the officers mess. Waited on like royalty. Ate like kings ourselves though. Might be where all of your chow went ??

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 4:58 PM

Now I know!:)

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tigerfan29... I'm going way out on a limb here, but I'm guessing


Feb 1, 2020, 11:55 AM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]

that I'd rather go to dinner with ISpeakTheTruth at Golden Corral, than go with you to Peter Luger's.

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A drunk will run a STOP sign, but a stoner will wait for it to turn green.


Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 5:37 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral! ]



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Re: I thank you both for your service


Jan 31, 2020, 12:53 PM

They sure don't make them like the used to

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 1:54 PM

Thanks to all of those who served our country during the many wars that have occurred during my life time.

During the Korean War, I was asked by my company members what was the difference between it and WW2. Even the short time frame between the end of WW2 and the beginning of the Korean War I was aware of the brutality due to the capability of the new instruments of warfare. The battlefields and tactics were different. The Vietnam War saw an even greater change and action in the Middle East, another change. All of the most recent wars have been and are being fought on the turf of our opponent. That, in itself, presents additional problems.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 2:47 PM

There are a lot of young people who are made up of the right kind of stuff - you just don't tend to hear about them - sort of like the guy you just happened upon in the Golden Corral

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 3:11 PM

I'm in Augusta and know that Golden Coral restaurant and enjoy their variety, etc. I have done very well and live in half million dollar house on a golf course with another vacation home on Lake Oconee. That is a great story meeting a Viet vet there. By the way I was a combat medic in Vietnam Nov. of 68 to Nov. of 69. Combat medic.

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You sir, deserve all possible accolades


Jan 31, 2020, 3:32 PM

I would not be alive today without our platoon medic in 1970 Nam- and it was the one Army MOS that I would have extended my time in service to avoid - would not have wanted the responsibility of saving lives that you were willing to accept. You have my deepest respect

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Re: You sir, deserve all possible accolades


Feb 1, 2020, 11:22 AM

120-4 Clover .... they were indeed valuable and deserve all the accolades they receive. My Corpsman was attached to my platoon because were separated from the rest of my Company who were 20 miles away at Battalion headquarters. We had to have one with us. Not only did he treat wounds, cuts, and scrapes, etc. he treated the local village kids who would come to our compound when they had a gash or other injury. He always accompanied us every morning on our daily mine sweep on Highway 1. He was also our platoon barber ..... Marine haircuts are not that complicated. I lost track of his after Viet Nam, but he has my utmost respect.

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Re: You sir, deserve all possible accolades


Feb 1, 2020, 11:23 AM

lol .... that's 10-4

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Re: You sir, deserve all possible accolades


Feb 1, 2020, 11:40 AM

God bless all the corpsmen and medics!

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Jan 31, 2020, 8:38 PM

That’s crazy! They had the Draft back then. Nobody should have had that many tours! Realize he was protecting others,,

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 4:14 AM

All the generations are the same. The youth today would do what they are needed to do given the situation.

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LOL! Somebody thumbed you down!


Feb 1, 2020, 9:05 AM

Whomever did THAT my friends is from a generation that will never understand or come close to equaling the ones before it.

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or they just hit the wrong button (wasn’t me though)***


Feb 1, 2020, 9:33 AM



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I just caught up to this. What a great share!


Feb 1, 2020, 10:19 AM

Thank you!

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Thanks to all the folks who served in the military.


Feb 1, 2020, 11:13 AM

I appreciate your service.

FWIW I am nearly 70 years old and I think most of the comments about this or that generational flaw or virtue is mostly just crazy talk. You don't have to look much at the lives of the people born in the 1920s and 30s to find plenty of good and bad things the so called 'Greatest Generation' did. I was born in 1950 and my kids were born in the 80s and 90s. You don't have to look hard to find plenty of good and bad things that cohort of people half my age have done in their first 30-40 years.

If you're a Clemson fan and you think much about the sort of student athletes we have at Clemson now and compare them to the those of prior decades I think you would be pressed not to feel really good about a lot of younger people growing up in America and the world these days.

Older people who complain a lot about younger people should ask themselves why the generations they raised turned out so badly. Or maybe just rethink the silly concept of good and bad generations.


BTW, my father's tombstone down in the Beaufort National Cemetery says in part, "SS BS PH" and he had a long string of hash marks down his uniform sleeve. His BS had a V on it and his PH had an OLC. He never left the house wearing civilian clothes with any sort of military related patches, insignia, or cap. And he never talked much about his war time service. I think most vets are a lot like my Pop that regard.

Go Tigers!!

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Re: Thanks to all the folks who served in the military.


Feb 1, 2020, 11:46 AM

May he RIP.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 12:28 PM

Thank you for posting. Great story.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 12:40 PM

The moral of this, leave the Golden Coral diners alone.

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easy with the generalization on 'this generation'


Feb 1, 2020, 1:26 PM

there are plenty out there who are honorably toeing the line much like those that have come before them...

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 4:51 PM

Do you feel that way about John Kerry? He volunteered for Vietnam, ran a river boat, picked up three purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star. Came back so that 30 or so years later, Republicans could wear little purple band aids on their faces at their convention and pretend he was a coward. I'm just throwing this out there before this thread turns into one where Trump supporters pretend they have any real interest in service or sacrifice for this country.

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Re: Interesting conversation with Vietnam vet in Golden Corral!


Feb 1, 2020, 5:37 PM

I certainly do not diminish Kerry's service, as I was not there with him. Quite a few of his men that served under him did not think too much of him ..... hopefully something my men would have not done to me. I do know that I received wounds that I did not seek a Purple Heart for because they were nothing that would have required me to miss any time, even a punctured eardrum from a land mine (IED) that to this day affects my hearing. I would have never worn a Purple Heart when many of my men we wounded much more significantly than me.

I was also written up for a Bronze Star with Combat V that was turned down because I had already received an end-of-tour award. I was medevaced to the Guam and my unit did not know I would be back so I was written up for a medal which I later received. Marines could only receive one end-of-tour medal.

I do know first hand that John Kerry is a jerk. I was in the clubhouse at the Golf Club in Brookline at the 2000 Ryder Cup when Kerry came bursting through the door followed by a uniformed security guard trying to stop him. The guard approached a non-uniformed guard standing beside me and he told him that Kerry would not stop when he asked for credentials (which he was supposed to be wearing on a lanyard around his neck). The guard approached Kerry again and he just ignored him and kept walking. What an entitled A-hole! That episode made the story his men told more believable.

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