I can remember someone of importance in the Reagan administration mentioning that Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” was Reagan’s favorite song. The official said it was a high energy, uplifting song that exemplified the greatness of America. However, some DJ once commented that if you read the lyrics to that song, it had nothing whatsoever in it that was uplifting about America at all. Sure, the song is energetic and the refrain “born in the usa” being repeated over and over again does sound patriotic. But…as that DJ mentioned…
In an ironic sense, the Reagan administration sure picked the song that encapsulated America at that time.
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Speaking of Vietnam vets, I never knew one personally. I barely remember one that was blown to bits and was a neighbor when I was just a tiny kid. That would’ve been Michael Dalton.
Patrick and I were playing in the street by the curb (yes, our parents thought the street was a safe place to play, it was 1971) when we were about six years old. I overheard Mr Robinson and Mr Jeffries discussing a funeral they had to attend. They spoke in hushed tones but I managed to pick up on some of the phrases.
“Jan, did you know it’s a closed casket?” and another phrase I heard, “Damn, half the torso?”
Mind you my idea of death was what cowboys did after killing 200 Indians first. The cowboy gets shot, grabbed his chest, slumped over and died a hero. I never knew what the word “torso” was but what do you know of anatomy at six?
I found out years later Michael Dalton was blow up by a booby trapped Viet Cong defense complex they had earlier fled. It was one of their nasty tricks, wire an abandoned military position to explode if it was tampered with by the enemy. And poor Michael tampered with it just enough…
Later on that year, we kids romped through the neighborhood on Halloween. As we approached the darkened Dalton house, the parents ushering us told us all to quiet down. One of the younger ones of us asked why we couldn’t ring their doorbell and get candy. The parents ignored the question and pointed out the Britt family across the street always had tons of candy and we all stormed that house instead. We never heard from the Dalton family much again after that.
Michael Dalton
