Thank You For Your Service

I'm Major John Donovan.

When I think of the Vietnam War, I think of an incident that happened about 10 years ago when I was getting ready to deploy to Iraq.

I was in this uniform, I stopped to get gas on my way to my deployment station, and a gentleman came up to me and started asking me questions about my uniform. From the nature of his questions,

I assumed that he has served in the military and so I asked him if he had. He said yes, that he had served in Vietnam from '67-'68.

He turned to go and I said, "Sir, I'd just like to thank you for your service."

He stopped, turned, looked at me and said, "You know, you're the first person in 35 years who's ever said that to me."