Three Wars, Different Perspectives: Reflections and Ramblings by Bob Nilsson

Having been in, around or involved in three of our nations wars, I thought it might be interesting to share some observations, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
Viet Nam Viet Nam started for me in 1965 when I was on a Med Cruise with the Atlantic Fleet and a battalion of embarked Marines. As we were at sea, we heard that Marines from the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific had landed in Da Nang. I was a Platoon Commander, a First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps … fairly salty but very naïve … I was to later discover, how naïve I actually was. Like most officers of Marines, I really wanted to go to Viet Nam, mostly to see what I could do and if I could hack it. The Marine Corps can be very intoxicating during peacetime, but in wartime it is a different story, altogether. Despite everything Marines come up against, the Marine Corps is truly an incredible band of brothers. Well, it didn’t take long for me to get my wish … suddenly, I was in country. After a couple of days, I landed in a helicopter to extract dead and wounded … from both sides … and I saw the look in Marines’ eyes: fatigue, fear, terror, exhaustion. I had seen these faces before, but at that time I was safe in the comfort of my home simply looking at a Life magazine and reading about WWII. These Viet Nam warriors’ eyes carried the same look I’d seen in those WWII images of soldiers. Next I found myself standing in a landing zone, a couple of days after my initial experiences, when a guy next to me jumps up, and then falls over dead, shot in the head. Yes, you grow up thinking war is when Hollywood puts John Wayne on a movie screen, but war in reality is a very different thing. It’s really not like Victory at Sea. You watch and you participate in the insanity, the fog of battle, and then follow that up by spending a lifetime trying to understand what you saw, heard, felt, did, and didn’t do. You watch acts of incredible bravery and heroism on some days and just take heroism for granted on other days. You watch acts of stupidity that stick with you for a lifetime. You patrol through and into a village, set up a base camp for the night, watch the infantry set up your security and perimeter and then you see the faces of the Vietnamese villagers – in the adults you see distrust and fear, and in some cases, hatred. In the children – terror. And then you realize the only thing that connects these people to the 20th century is the aluminum cooking pot they own … everything else has been there for over 300 years. It doesn’t take long for anyone to see that they are not interested in democracy or communism – they simply want to live in peace and to eat their next bowl of rice. Then it’s over for you … back to the USA where family and friends really don’t want to talk about Viet Nam - which to them is Vietnam - and they certainly don’t want to listen to you. At first you turn the TV off when the nightly news comes on because the news is dominated by those protesting and resisting the war. Then, you just turn off. So for a decade you shut up … lock it away and don’t open the closet … so you don’t have to mention it to anyone … not to anyone. Until some brilliant young soldiers start what will later become The Wall, the Vietnam Memorial … a brilliant piece of architecture, and much more, located on the mall in Washington, DC. Only then does the closet door begin to slowly open.
The First Gulf War Now a civilian with a major engineering firm building a billion dollar government headquarters in Kuwait in 1991, I get a call late one August evening from my son, a summer intern for a Congressman in Washington DC. He tells me that Kuwait had been invaded. Six month later, a lot of shooting starts. Turns out he was probably the only one in that Congressman’s office who knew where Kuwait was. Now instead of building a series of projects, we are faced with having 20 or so of our staff, wives, kids, parents, and yes even a parrot or two, being held prisoner. How do we protect them, get them out, help their families back in the states, and, at the same time, deal with our local Kuwaiti partners whose every personal asset is frozen. This suddenly caused them to go from being very rich to totally dependent on us. We eventually got everyone out safely; yes, even the parrots. Our only solution to keeping the business going at the time was to get the hell over there, to see for ourselves what’s going on, and to keep the agents and middlemen from giving our construction projects to others. So we fly to Bahrain, hire a taxi to drive us to Saudi Arabia and rent a fleet of Avis cars so we can head north to Kuwait. In the meantime, the war, all three weeks of it on the ground, is winding down. We find that the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is abandoned; no arrogant Saudi Customs officials in sight, but signs of war fighting are evident. Far more evident are the burning oil fields that can turn day to night with a mere shift of the wind. The fighting has just ended, the locals are celebrating, and the toughest task for us now is keeping our younger staff that has not been in combat before from wandering into minefields in search of souvenirs. And then we drive up to the pass to Basra and personally witness what American Airpower can really do in terms of destruction. Unbelievable. The troops are great and make us proud, even in their celebrations in Dubai and their parades in NY and DC. And over the next several years many of us wonder weather Bush should have gone to Baghdad. Kuwait is free. W get our oil supplies back.

Did we really learn anything about that part of the world?
Iraq and Afghanistan

Map Note: Substantial Taliban activity in at least 97 percent of Afghanistan is shown in this security map by policy research group International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) released September 10, 2009. The Taliban have a significant presence in almost every corner of Afghanistan, data from the policy think tank showed on Thursday, as the country lurches into political uncertainty after a disputed presidential election. Reuters (Courtesy Cryptome)

Fast forward 10 years … 9/11 strikes midnight in the sands of time. Our recovery and response is magnificent. NYC and Washington, DC show us what the USA is all about. The military’s ability to get into Afghanistan quickly and successfully is very impressive. Then things begin to unravel. Thought we had learned in the First Gulf War about the importance of strategic alliances with partners in the area with common interests and concerns. Guess not. Unilateral (US&UK -- the others didn’t count) declaration of war is not a good move. This time my perspective of war is watching and talking to the wounded returning from Afghanistan and Iraq through the portals of Bethesda National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed. You get an eyeful, but you also get to meet the most incredible young men and women I have ever known. The initial push into Iraq was very impressive, but that was also when I became concerned as I could see no discernible plan as to what we were going to do once we got there. Having dealt with the Arab world on and off for 30 years, I know one thing -- their culture is far different than ours and they are proud groups of people. But even more proud are the returning wounded … their morale and Esprit de Corps is truly impressive. Listening to them makes you marvel at what they have been through. Their stories do not jive with the nightly TV news stories. Must be a different spin? Sound familiar? And oh yes, we see in action the most incredible medical and support and therapy staff that have probably ever been pulled together. Their work is unbelievable. They have so many patients to help and too much Government bureaucracy to deal with. Some things change, some never change. So, what can you learn from this? Well, go take a ride to DC and take a good look at The Wall, the Vietnam Memorial. I did today. Isn’t it time we learn from what we have done in the past?

Bob Nilsson is a member of the 9th Engineer Battalion Vietnam Veterans Association. He served with First Shore Party in Vietnam and recently retired from a long and very successful 46-year career with Turner Construction. He now serves as a consultant with Turner Construction and also volunteers his time and energy in assisting returning veterans in the amputee ward at Walter Reed hospital ---

Bob Nilsson (R) with a Wounded Warrior