Several Veteran have emailed me with the eternal quandary of how, or why, exactly, March 29th  somehow became the “last day” of the geographical disagreement between the Republic of Viet Nam (RVN) and the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (DRV). Well, it didn’t. At best it marked the end of America’s and the DRV’s disagreement and the return of our POWs. From where I stand, we might have officially rolled up  and sheathed the ceremonial banners and flown the POWs out of Hanoi, but it was quite a spell after that MACV, SOG and a few other alphabet outfits  etc. “officially” rolled up their tents and antenna farms and called it a day. MACV was just absorbed into JUSMAAGTHAI as far as I’m concerned.

As most know, I’ve been known to represent an inordinate number of former employees of in-theatre civilian airlines which had several names. I need not enumerate to say more than AirAm, CASI, Bird and Sons etc. Oddly enough, these former pilots, air cargo “kickers” and REMF facilitators at Air Operations Centers (AOC) across Laos, Thailand and RVN are all under the disability compensation umbrella of Secretary Doug and his merry band of adjudicators (DVA). They compete just like all you Veterans of various wars and expeditions for scarce compensation bucks.

It’s a long story but I know some of these former pilots- especially a few kickers I met up at Sam Thong in my day… and of course their surviving spouses. Those who are still alive might vehemently disagree that America’s combat assets and personnel were PCS by March 29th. If you buy that hooey, then I have some absolutely stunning bridges I’d like to sell you at a greatly reduced rate.

One gentleman I encountered and worked with on his claims was on one of the last 123s that bugged out before the new landlords of Tan Son Nhut Airpatch  rolled a few tanks onto the active runway at about the red V2 sign. He was busy  down on the flightline disassembling and crating PC 6s as fast as he could when the bell rang.  A handful of AirAm Bell 206s, a few Porters and even some Caribous also escaped and either flew out to the waiting A/C carriers at Dixie Station, ditched nearby, beat feet to Don Muang or flew on to Clark if they had the legs. That was April 30, 1975-not March 29, 1973.

President Ford, for whatever reason chose the magic May 7, 1975 date as the demarcation line for no’ mo’ Agent Orange. But even then there were still a few Spec. Forces or SOGs acting as the fire department nearby in Thailand in case they were needed for extracurricular activities. Thus, you can understand my confusion when someone just pulls an extraneous date out of their hat. All President Nixon did on March 29, 1973 was to “officially” shut down MACV Headquarters, fold up the flag and proceed to conduct business as usual. Granted, they had to begin parking the cars out back to make it plausible.

So I pulled out my Perplexity or whatever AI trick Google is using to see what’s actually going on officially in America today as well as on May 7th that caused us to get bumped just for shits and grins.

Today is World Piano Day celebrated here and around the world. That’s because March 29 is the 88th day of the year and a piano has…wait for it… 88 keys. I’m willing to share May 7 with them.

Long before we kissed the concrete in Southeast Asia, March 29th was National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. Women business owners were recognized equally as men were. We didn’t even need a DEI committee to supervise it.

As for May 7th, it’s pretty popular for quite a few more things. No wonder we drew the short straw. As I explained above, Congress chose March 29 solely because of President Nixon’s MACV shutdown. Obviously, they all think that has a shit ton more “resonance” with America.  Here’s a short list of other reasons why we won’t be celebrating Pontius Pilate Day on May 7.

May 7th celebrates National Barrier Awareness Day. Congress aimed to help us simpleminded folk to recognize, understand and attempt to rid America of its social and physical barriers to disabled people-presumably including all those Vietnam Vets who had the misfortune to step on a Bouncing Betty.

In addition, I’m gonna take a wild guess and say most of you didn’t know it is also National Tourism Day, National Homebrew Day for all you aspiring Jack Daniels CEO wannabes, and National Roast Leg of Lamb Day (for which I plan to readily partake in this year).

Lastly, unless you were mistaken, it’s also National Paste Up Day recognizing all you “Traditional Graphic Design Technique” folks, National School Nurse Day and National Day of Prayer. So that explains it. May 7th’s dance card was plumb full up and already spoken for long before we made out hasty retreat on April 30th.

But what did happen on May 7th, 1975?  President Ford officially moved to declare the end of  the Vietnam “era” for monetary purposes. AI phrases it this way: “President Ford declared May 7, 1975, the end of the “Vietnam era” by proclamation to legally terminate wartime benefits, such as burial allowances and special Montgomery GI Bill rates, for new military recruits. Following the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, this move marked the transition to a peacetime military, saving the US $1.5 billion over five years.

This changed us over from “War Vets” to “Peacetime Vets”. The most obvious change was you no longer were awarded the coveted National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) from May 8th, 1975 on until we started invading places like Panama and Grenada. Shucks. Even Haiti. I get that. Every once in a while it’s necessary for our Military poohbahs to want to test out some of their new toys like M16A1s, Pigs and Claymores. So, if you raised your Right hand on May 7th, you got a NDSM. If you raised it on May 8th, you didn’t.

Taking that to it’s natural conclusion, you’d think that they would have put the kibosh on the NDSM from March 29th, 1973, on, right? Face it, all the combat troops had hopped a ride home on their Freedom Birds and they cut off the lights at Phu Cat, Nha Trang and Tuy Hoa, Tan Son Nhut, Bien Hoa, Phan Rang, CRB, An Khe and Da Nang. Right?

The VA recognizes the Vietnam Era for Agent Orange purposes to encompass January 9, 1962 through May 7, 1975. That’s the official date the Air Force cranked up Operation Ranch Hand out of Bien Hoa- and very  surreptitiously out of Ubon over in Thailand. Apparently, King Bhumibol wasn’t too hot on seeing that shit sprayed all over his country. The Air Force nodded their heads and said Roger. No AO, bro. But to them that didn’t rule out a host of other flavors like Blue and White. The fact is, it didn’t even rule out Orange- just the overt mention of it around Thai Army folks.

So that’s it in a nutshell. Because President Bush decided to pick that day to reserve it for V Vets in 2008 based on what President Nixon did in ’73, and because President Obama announced he, too, was going to choose March 29 on Memorial Day of 2012 to make sure we got “commemorated”… and because President Trump quit screwing around and signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 on March 28, 2017, we now are stuck with it. For lack of a shoe the horse was lost. For lack of a horse the War was lost. But take consolation. Remember, Vietnam was not a War. According to the VFW, it was just a conflict. Try explaining that to the 59,474 families who lost a loved one.

We should be commemorating, for what it’s worth, on May 7th- or April 30th at the very earliest. In fifty years, no one will remember we lost anyway so it isn’t important. And that’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.

P.S. Because it is No Kings Day across our fruited plains, I was asked to share this with you.