Shortly after an Iraqi capitulation ended Operation Desert Storm’s combat operations on March 1, 1991, my Marine Corps infantry battalion rolled into Kuwait City.
We drove by numerous destroyed vehicles and the occasional dead body and into a shell-shocked city that had no electricity. But the Kuwaiti people quickly emerged and lined the streets, raucously cheering the Americans who’d liberated them from a future of totalitarian oppression under Saddam Hussein’s secret police and henchmen.
It was a passionate and heady moment, and one that helped our military move forward from the grim legacy of Vietnam.
I looked at the troops in the truck in front of my vehicle and focused on a master gunnery sergeant sitting there with our happy Marines, impassively taking in the cheers.
This grizzled old Leatherneck, a Vietnam veteran who’d survived the epic siege of Khe Sanh, probably did not get to savor such a euphoric welcome when he’d returned home from southeast Asia.
As I looked at the old master gunnery sergeant, I found myself wishing that every American who’d gone into harm’s way in Vietnam could somehow, someday, similarly receive such heartfelt appreciation for their service.
(State Rep. Michael Moffett of Loudon is a retired Marine Corps officer.)