RIP DOUG NIEDERMEYER,,,
Doug was reportedly a fratricide victim in South Vietnam. I wonder how many folks stop to remember Doug each Memorial Day.
shareDo fictional characters get to have their names engraved on the Vietnam memorial? Certainly seems fair, right?
shareI cried a river when I learned he had been fragged. 😀
There should actually be a memorial for all the officers and NCOs who invite the traditional ideas of who the enemy is in war to become, well, confused. And who perish as a result.
Real-life example from WW2: a German NCO was put in charge of Poles who had been conscripted into the German Army because they had been reclassified as Germans and the Eastern Front desperately needed cannon fodder. All through training he made their lives hell, ridiculed their bad German etc.
Then he was assigned to accompany them to the Russian Front as their sergeant. Confronted by this surprise development, he tried to make friends with them. Too late! At the first clash with the Russians, his own troops ensured that he died for the Fatherland in Doug Niedermeyer style...
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."