Thomas Dansby

Thomas Dansby (my brother) did not serve during Vietnam War. His was of the “lottery” generation and his “number” was high enough for it to never be called.

ROTC commissioned 2nd lieutenants from Henderson State – those of us in college (1966-1970) would read the casualty list published in the Arkansas Gazette and unfortunately read familiar names who had very recently shared a coke with us in the Student Union. They quickly found themselves on the ground in leadership positions in the Vietnam jungles.

One of Bartlett High School’s Valedictorians in the 1990’s (Ai-Van Do) was a young child when her parents and family escaped as South Vietnam’s government collapsed. Her family was in one of those boats and the people were called “boat people.” They were transported to California, and Bartlett, Tennessee, was a haven for many such refugees. She told her story at her graduation ceremony and “there was not a dry eye in the house.”

When I saw the movie Good Morning, Viet Nam, and heard Louis Armstrong’s It’s a Wonderful World and saw the scenes of Vietnamese villagers alongside our young American troops, I cried.