Veterans Day Statistics
by John F McMullen

I live in the
Town of Yorktown, NY
It’s a midsize
Lower Hudson Valley town
With a population in 2018
of 36,900

If I multiply that by 1.5
I get 55,350
That’s a lot of people

58,220 Americans
were killed in Vietnam
more that one and a half times
the number in my Westchester town

Happy Veterans Day

Copyright John F McMullen 2019

Tommy Minogue Didn’t Decide
by John F McMullen

Tommy Minogue,
the younger brother
of friends from
my old neighborhood
didn’t decide to
send advisors to Vietnam
Dwight Eisenhower did

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
send Special Forces
to Vietnam
John F. Kennedy did

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
escalate the war
on a phony
Gulf of Tonkin story
Lyndon Johnson did

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
heavily bomb
North Vietnam
Richard Nixon did

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
bring the troops home
Gerald Ford did

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
go to Vietnam
the Army sent him

Tommy Minogue
didn’t decide to
win the
Distinguished Service Cross
It was awarded posthumously

Copyright John F McMullen 2019

John F. McMullen, “johnmac the bard,” is a member of the American Legion, is the poet laureate of the town of Yorktown, N.Y., a graduate of Iona College and the holder of two masters degrees from Marist College. He is also a member of the American Academy of Poets and Poets & Writers, the author of over 2,500 columns and articles and nine books, seven of which are collections of poetry all are available at Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats), and is the host of a weekly internet radio show (300 shows to date). www.johnmac13.com.