I never was, quote unquote, out with the Marines, but I think they had some idea, and the irony was in San Francisco after Vietnam.

I could be out as a gay man, and not out as a veteran.

It’s not easy being a crazed, queer, pacifist Vietnam vet.

And I think that has summed up what it’s been for 66 years.

This was taken… when we were unloading supplies to hold sick call in the village.

These were like the villagers around where we were, you know, coming up to get taken care of.

This was in November of ’70, so I had been there 11 months.

But I was adorable… And the Marines let me get away with my hair that long.

For somebody like me, the Marines could have been so nasty, but they weren’t, they were very nice to me.

And there was this Marine whose nickname was Big Man, and he was a big blonde guy, who was really, really nice to me.

We would come to barbed wire, and they knew I would tangled up in it, and Big Man was like 6 foot 4 so he would just pick me up, and hand me over to another big Marine on the other side of the barbed wire.

And we were on a patrol in the mountains, there were like 20 or 30 Viet Cong, some of them came over the ridge and shot Big Man, so two Marines and I found him in a crevice, and I did artificial resuscitation, I did CPR, I tried to bring him back.

Another corps man came up and basically had to sort of slap me and say, “You can’t do anything, it’s too late, it’s too late”.

So… I’m okay.

But that was.. that was very difficult.

But you have to keep on going, we have to keep doing patrols and that sort of thing.

My work with Veterans For Peace, because of what I dealt with in Vietnam, I work on the issue of gun violence.

A lot of the other veterans who I know, who are Vietnam veterans, were pro-war and had an epiphany when they were over there, that war is not right.

-Okay, do you want start with… -Gay pride?

-Yes.

-Okay so it’s gonna be on the 12th, we’ll send out an announcement -This has always been a lot of fun, how many years has it been?

-I think 5 years at least, first year we got best social commentary, but now their bored with us.

-Your whole idea of having a drone with a condom... -That time has not come, but maybe it should have come, I don’t know.

-We’re gonna step up the game this year, with the new banner… Mike, because of his experience as a medic in Vietnam, has very intimate experiences with bullet wounds and physical evidence of violence like that, so he’s a very credible person, talking about gun violence in an urban setting.

-This is an editorial from the University of Pennsylvania newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian, from November 11th, 2015, That I was the guest columnist for.

“Every day, more than 50 Americans take their lives with a bullet.

Of these, approximately 15 are veterans.

As a 20 year old returning from the war, I was overwhelmed by memories.

45 years later, I am still overwhelmed.

From my own experiences I have some understanding how difficult it can be for younger veterans dealing with the despair and heartbreak of war.

We need to increase awareness of the strong link between firearms and suicide.

We must do all we can to help our veterans.

We must do all we can to stop the epidemic of suicide."

So, I basically stayed in the closet as a veteran in the ‘70s, and then in 1979 I started this veteran’s peace idea.

I called the gay pride parade in San Francisco to ask if they had any veterans groups marching, and the man that answered the phone said no, there are no veterans groups marching in the gay pride parade, and half the pride parade committee thinks that all Vietnam veterans should be tried as war criminals.

The bars toss beads, so what we’ve got is about 300 Veterans for Peace wristbands to toss.

I think the first time we marched in the gay pride parade in Philadelphia was about 5 years ago.

And it’s mostly straight vets in the group, so it’s to let the gay community know, and the veterans community to know, that there is support on both sides.

I think the majority of Americans, the concept of a veteran working for peace is not something they can get their head around.

And then I heard about what happened in Florida.

What happened?

Fifty people in a gay bar were killed by a lone gunman, and fifty people are injured.

Last night?

It happened last night... this morning, early.

Fifty people dead?

Fifty people are dead.

The Orlando Massacre, it was just really hard to comprehend.

But it’s becoming a blur about the mass shootings, I can’t fathom how we can go on like we’re doing.

With Newtown, to Orlando, what happened in Charlotte.

One thing I would hope is that this country sees the light and somehow does something to reduce the shootings.

To reduce the violence.