Fifty years after Vietnam's bloodiest battles, veterans gather for what could be a final reunion

[DonViejo]

The ‘lucky ones’

Fifty years after Vietnam’s bloodiest battles, veterans gather for what could be a final reunion

Story by Michael E. Ruane
Published on April 29, 2017

Kathryn Barents got home from work that fall night in 1967 to find somber family members gathered in the living room, and her shaken father, Henry, waiting to speak with her.

She feared this was about her husband, Paul, a Marine Corps lieutenant in Vietnam. They had been married only a few months, and his class had just completed the Basic Officer Course in Quantico, Va., in August. Ten from the class had already been killed, and she figured that Paul, 23, had now been added to the list.

Her father brought her into the kitchen, and they sat down. Paul had been grievously wounded in a friendly-fire incident. His legs had been shattered, and would later be amputated. But she was lucky. He was alive.

This week, Paul Barents, now 72, and Kathryn Barents, 71, of Easton, Md., will join scores of Marine Corps veterans and their spouses outside Washington for a 50-year reunion of Paul’s graduating class from the Marines’ Basic School for officers.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/04/29/fifty-years-after-vietnams-bloodiest-battles-the-lucky-ones-are-gathering-for-what-could-be-a-final-reunion/?utm_term=.7bffe64832dd&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-local%252Bnational&wpmk=1

[democrank]

1. K & R

~PEACE~