And there are thousands and thousands more. Each life was important. That's what the holiday is all about. Thanks for sharing.

This year marks our 50th reunion.

More than 100 of my classmates have died. Many different causes.

I feel fortunate to still be alive. I grieve for those service people who never came home.

and for their loved ones. I spent many years trying to help heal the wounded minds.

I remember how proud I was to graduate in the Bicentennial Year, with all the patriotic displays and fervor that we had back then, at least in my part of the country. We've lost so much since then, and the pace is accelerating.

I know several of my HS classmates have died since then but I'm sure there are others that I don't know about.

Not sure if we are having a reunion, so graduation may have been the last time I saw some of those folks.

It was college or Nam.

Friends I knew in high school. I remember the first death of someone I knew…..I was a sophomore. Also, many of us lost relatives in WW2 and Korea. I had an uncle die on the Bataan death march. The horrors of war should never be trivialized and the sacrifices of people defending us should always be memorialized.

Peace ☮️

He was the very first causalty in Desert Storm the first Gulf War.

Several died in Nam, but the one I especially remember told me once that I was the first girl he ever kissed.

His friend, Jesus, did not make it back from Vietnam alive. His eyes welled up after all these years as I listened.

My close neighbor told another neighbor friend that he should go to Vietnam. She carried the memory of his death until her own.

As I work as a civilian on a military base, the memory of Vietnam is not with the young people there. My condolence to all those with memory.

I did have a friend when I was young whose father didn’t return from Vietnam

My Dad and his brother were 4F. Uncles on my Mom’s side were younger and stayed in school long enough to avoid it. Their father was a WWII veteran and didn’t want his sons to go

Class of ‘88

6 died in Vietnam. Just under 6%. Shocking!

75 in my graduating class. I didn't stay in touch with any of those people, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the guys got drafted. Now I'm wondering if they did and if they all made it back.

One of my cousins got drafted but never left the states. He ended up in the quartermaster corps after basic training and spent the rest of his hitch in Ft. Dix, NJ.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend Paul. There were too many like him.

two of our classmates in Vietnam and another committed suicide 3 months after coming home. We had all been in school together since first grade and it hit us so hard. I lost two of my former students: one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. I cry every time I look through my school yearbooks and see their sweet little 7 year old faces smiling back at me. My mom’s brother was killed in World War II so I sadly never knew him. I choke up every Memorial Day and Veterans Day when I put out my flag.

When I went to my 5th highschool reunion more than 10 percent of the boys were dead. Half from drugs, half didn't come back from Vietnam. I had a graduating class of 400.

... and when I went for my draft physical, I got a 1Y instead of a 1A because I was too light for my height. Hard to believe, looking in the mirror now. When they went to the lottery system, I got a high number, so I never got called up.
'Nam was a war that should never have happened, which, to my mind, makes the loss of 58,220 young lives all the more tragic. And the 303,644 who came home wounded will likely attest to that.

I was too young.

I became casual friends with a Vietnam vet in Florida. His father bought him a Corvette as a present for surviving the war.
He lived in a crawl space in a stairwell of a motel. He worked at the motel cleaning the pool/maintenance.
I feel he was disturbed from his experience and largely detached from family and society.
I knew from my other family members who served that you don't pry very hard into those areas as vets in my family did not like to discuss it.
I guess I just functioned as non threatening company - easy companionship
I found him interesting and kind of exciting - he seemed so carefree in some ways and yet emotionally wounded and withdrawn/guarded in other ways.
Once, he took me out to Daytona beach in the wee hours. I can't be sure but I think he got his car up to 168mph. It was rattling so much, I thought the car was going to fly apart. The speedometer was hard to read. Turns out that beach isn't as flat as you think.
One day, not long after, he was gone without saying a word.
He left me with some good memories. I think he had a very tough experience. I hope life worked out for him.

I still feel the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the saddest place I have visited in the country.