I am a Vietnam era veteran but literally stood no chance of going over to Vietnam.
I was in the Air Force during the early 70’s for a four year hitch as a B52 ground crew member and stationed at the now defunct Wurtsmith AFB in Michigan and later at Barksdale AFB Louisiana. A large amount of my time was served at the alert facility where B52’s and KC 135’s were war ready and fully uploaded with nukes. I enlisted at the very end of the war because having grown up in that period and having seen the effects of the war on a daily basis, I formed some profound emotional thoughts and feelings about America and Americans.
I like everyone else from that Vietnam period ate dinner every evening and part of the news included death in Vietnam with counts and planes shot down numbers. That was mind boggling for me. I also grew up where on an almost on a daily basis, I saw Nikita Khrushchev on American television commercials, where he pointed into the camera and said “We will bury you”. As a child that scared me to death and really helped to further grow my patriotism and love for this amazing country and the people who served. Some came back, some did not. Some of the ones that came back of course were permanently changed either physically, mentally or both.
My father was a Marine. There was never a loss of positive reinforcement in regard to being pro America. I crewed B52’s while I was in the Air Force and it was a relatively uneventful period of service, other than to make an already passionate love for this country even deeper. I now had brothers and sisters that were of the same mindset as myself and understood that whatever we were asked to do was something we were willing to do because it was the right thing to do. I pulled a lot of alert duty ( my plane was fully uploaded with nukes and ready to scramble). I was part of a mobility contingency that was prepared to respond to places unknown within 30 minutes). Fortunately none of this stuff ever came into play.
It has always been a troubling thing for me to stand by and watch the people that gave so much be ignored or worse. I want to do anything I can to show our support for our country and for the men, women and their families that served her. I want to give back somehow. For the most part, I can only do that with words and photos that hopefully show that respect and or provoke thought. I am an artist. It is very troubling for me to see so many young vets coming back damaged so badly. My mission is to feature 20 or so veterans in a essay type of book project with photos to paint a real picture and perhaps a page just highlighting their story and make it personal. People can’t ignore what is going on, when it has a face and a story. I think it could open a few eyes, perhaps influence some people to rethink the care of our veterans receive today.
My art show season is ending the 1st week May, and I hope to start getting some interested veterans in my next project. For those veterans interested in participating, please message me a service photo for consideration.
~ Kirk Dodd, USAF Veteran
www.facebook.com/pages/Kirk-Dodd-Photography/299648576743552?pnref=lhc
We wish to offer special gratitude to Kirk and wish him much success with his project in helping our veterans, past and present!
www.facebook.com/ComesASoldiersWhisper
www.VietnamAndBeyond.com
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