In late fall of 1777, Gen. George Washington and has rag tag army of militiamen suffered 2 defeats at the hands of the British at Brandywine and Germantown. He and his 11,000 men retreated to Valley Forge, PA to establish winter headquarters. It was a dark time for the revolution. Many died of starvation or cold, never more than h of the force was in any shape to battle at one time. Many deserted the cause, because the stress and suffering was too great.
But thousands hung on. They stayed in there, despite frozen bodies, starvation, sickness and bone-biting cold, because they had a goal, a purpose for being there---that was more important to them than personal comfort or even safety.
In February they began a regrouping that prepared them for pursuing the British all the way across New Jersey in June of 1778.
Contrast that with Viet Nam. Never in the history of the American Armed forces has there been so much suicide, drug abuse, fighting amongst our own troops and total lack of moral. Never in our history has there been a conflict from which our boys came back so troubled and broken.
"We didn’t do that in WWII," the old timers say, "what’s wrong with this spoiled, wimpy generation of soldiers?"
And America is just beginning to catch on to the difference!
We knew why we were at Valley Forge! We knew why we hit the beaches at Normandy and struggled the raise the flag at Iwo Jima. But there was simply no
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