While I opposed the war, I have counted many Vietnam Vets as friends and coworkers.

About 1972 while attending Junior College, (they're called Community Colleges now!), I was impressed by a young Vet missing both lower legs. I think it was a mine, (They're called IED's now!). 

He was so singular, compared with myself and my fresh from High School fellow undergrads. I, who fancied myself a poet, wrote one about him. 

Here it is from a very old notebook:

Fall rain and crowded 

Commons Through smoke hazy sits the 

cripple in his chair. 

When he wheels through their piles, 

dry leaf people scatter and 

come to rest behind.