May 30, 2002

WHO ARE WE?

You can see us in parades with strange hats on,
at pilotico gatherings with the same hats on, at the
gravesites of our fellow comardes giving the the last
salute. Sometimes we sit in wheelchairs at the VA
Hosiptal w/iv bottles and O2 tubes in our nostils, maybe
on hospitals beds being wheeled around seeing the doctors.
Maybe sitting on the park benches feeding the pigons and a
brown sack with a whiskey bottle inside, walking the duck pond
talking to ourselves, yelling out strange words or riding a
bicycle singing out cadence in a loud voice and cops behind him.

Could you have seen me somewhere? Maybe in an old movie
with bullets and cannons shells flying over my head, ducking
behind a tree to escape a rifle shot, to be put on a strechter and
having a flag folded over my coffin and handed to my mother, my
wife or my two children? Have you heard these words- "ON BEHALF OF A GRATFUL NATION AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES...?." Maybe in a motorized wheelchair with a sign on the back- "Agent Orange put me in this" and American flags flying taped to the handles.

Did you stop and ask who I was, open or wheeled me thru the doors of the VA Hospital, stopped at my grave on MEMORIAL or VETERANS DAY and place a flag on my grave? Did you see some
people do the the same on those same days and ask why? Do you flinch when jets, sudden shots or TAPS rang out? Have you had someone feed your meals to you, change your clothes or diapers? Did someone listens to your stories, to your cries in the night and to calm your body after a frighting nightmare that has being going on for 30 years? Have you seen my name on a black wall, a brass placard, a gold star hanging on my mother's front window, on a gravestone in a cementary?

If you have done anything like the above or know somebody
like the above mentioned, you might know me. Let me know if you do by hugging me, saluting me, placing a flag on my grave, to
sing a song in my honor, to help me thru that door, to help my
family to take care of me, deliver that meal on wheels, to check
on me and make sure that everything is alright.

If you think you might know me please come see me at the
PERMAIN BASIN VIETNAM MEMORIAL on MEMORIAL OR
VETERANS DAY. I WILL BE THERE SAYING HELLO, GOODBYE
AND HOW IN THE H*LL ARE YOU TO MY FELLOW
VETERANS?

I could have a uniform on or not, wear a silly hat or a pin
on the same or collar of a shirt or suit jacket, have long or short
(clean or unkempt) hair. Be not be afraid, I do not kill anymore, shoot anyone, or swallow anyone whole. I come here to give PEACE and to SEEK PEACE. DO YOU KNOW US NOW?

Why do you come here?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED


BICYCLE BEN WEIHRICH
USMC '69-'75


printed Midland Reporter telegram
May 2002


Semper Fi

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