Fireworks remind
vet of wartime
In a few weeks we will be celebrating Independence Day. I used to think a 4th of July celebration wasn't complete without fireworks.
Now, I'm a grandfather and my grandchildren are just as excited about the upcoming fireworks as I once was. They always ask me to take them to the fireworks display, and I always tell them I can't. The kids don't understand, but anyone who has ever been in combat does. Grandma Lila takes them, and I stay home.
On July 4th, it will be 28 years and four days since I left Vietnam (River Patrol Section 523, Vinh Long, RVN, June '67 - April '68, AFVN Saigon, May '68 - Febrary '69). In all that time, I have attended one fireworks display, and that was 15 years ago here in Park Rapids.
ADVERTISEMENT
The problem is those airbursts that seem to become more numerous each year and add nothing to the display, but which are meant to simulate Frances Scott Key's "...bombs bursting in air..." I could handle the soft "whump" of a shell being launched or the neat "pop" when fountains of color appear, but those airbursts are terrifying to me. They are the sound of a mortar round landing a few feet away, or of a B-40 round smashing into my boat or an IED for the veterans of the Iraq wars.
Please, if anyone out there has influence over such displays, please eliminate the airburst shells. I know there are others in the community who feel as I do but who won't speak out.
Ken Kalish
Park Rapids
