'Time definitely flies…It has been forty-something years. 'I can't believe it has been so long,' Butler said while looking over old black-and-white photographs of his days in Vietnam. But as a Special Forces Soldier who also served in Afghanistan as a medical officer, Butler is 'matter-of-fact' about his Vietnam experiences and the wounds he received from a booby trap and small arms fire David Butler refers to the injuries he received in Vietnam as 'just part of the game.'Īs one of the last Vietnam veterans in the Florida National Guard, Butler, 63, could rightfully brag about his two Purple Hearts. Their stories are still poignant memories of a long and controversial chapter in U.S. At least one Airman personally lived through the evacuation of Saigon as a teenager.

The last Florida Air National Guard Vietnam veteran retired in January. In early 2012 there were five now only two Vietnam vets still serve in the Florida Army National Guard. Recently the numbers of active Florida Guardsmen who served in Vietnam have dwindled. service members who served in Southeast Asia from 1962-1975. Through 2025 the Department of Defense joins other groups in thanking and honoring all Vietnam veterans, and paying tribute to the more than three million U.S. The next thirteen years have been designated as the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. And while the memories of that particular bunker may start to fade with each passing day, for Butler and a few members of the Florida National Guard the Vietnam War is indelibly stamped upon their souls. David Butler says he remembers the faces, but can't remember the names of those Soldiers he served with nearly half a century ago. Whatever he was thinking about – home, a girlfriend, a private joke – is long forgotten. In one, the Soldier on the left with the mop of uncombed hair is smiling.

They were taken somewhere on a bunker in central Vietnam in the late 1960s maybe on a spring morning. The edges of the glossy prints are starting to curl and yellow. The photos are black and white – images of young men in military fatigues and muddy combat boots staring knowingly into a camera.

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