Honoring VETS ?

[RV8505]

I don't think having Tony Orlando is anything to do with being a "right winger" but specifically that song. I remember it well. 1973 was the first year I went to Oshkosh with my brother and I was 7 years old. That song was on the radio all the time. My oldest brother served during Vietnam, thankfully stateside at Nike Hercules base. My other brother that took me to Oshkosh and the Burlington show in 1973 was one round away from being drafted when they called off the draft. Although I was young at the time I fully appreciate the stress of that war and the fear of my brother possibly getting shipped off and not coming back. That song brings back memories of that time.

Plus 1.

[scuba72]

As a vet, I cannot speak for all, but our families still tie a yellow ribbon around a tree to signify a loved one is deployed. I was never a big fan of TO (but Dawn, whatever happened to her?). Even though I wasn't a fan, that one song still means a lot to me. I have come home from a long deployment and have seen a yellow ribbon tied around a tree in my front yard. Let me tell you it will bring tears to your eyes and that song will be playing in your head. The Dixie Chicks were pretty controversial, but the song Traveling Solder was a pretty good tribute to Vietnam vets too.

Suck it up. We don't go to Airventure for the Headlining stars. We go for the total experience, the friends, the education, and the airplanes.

Dave in Missouri. Retired MSgt, USAF

[Floatsflyer]

I was never a big fan of TO (but Dawn, whatever happened to her?)
Dave in Missouri. Retired MSgt, USAF

Dawn was not a "her". Dawn was 2 hers, those superb vocalist back-up singers who came from the famous R&B and Soul labels, Motown and Stax Records. Does anyone remember TO & Dawn also had a popular TV variety show that ran 3 seasons from 1974-76.

Hear are some more hit TO & Dawn Earworms for you all: Candida; Knock Three Times; He Don't Love You Like I love You; Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsie Rose.

Hope you can all get to sleep tonight, especially you Bill(because I know deep down inside, you're a closet TO & Dawn fan that's just screaming to get out. C'mon, don't be defensive, admit it, you'll feel better in the morning).

[JimRice85]

And there was the old joke about Tony coming up missing. He was later found early one morning at the crack of Dawn.

I remember the TO show...not Terrell Owens.

[psvinny]

@Zack, You are so right. This is the right choice. Tony Orlando may not have a current hit on the charts and maybe he can't hit all the notes he used to but he carried the hearts of so many families waiting for their Veterans to return home. Another example is Jim Nabors. Is he the best singer around, no, but I would not want to see anyone else sing "Back Home In Indiana" before the Indy 500. The veterans deserve the best we can do to honor them and in this case Tony Orlando and Gary Sinise are the best.

[Al Burgemeister]

The Yellow Ribbon Honor Flight is going to do it again at Airventure 2014. See http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa...e-oshkosh-2014. For a story about last year's YRHF, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHCnnMnPUCM. Tony Orlando may not have been my favorite entertainer but he sang one of the themes of the time.

Quang Tri '68-'69

[Bill Greenwood]

I wonder how many vets really know the history of that song that they think is about coming home from Nam. It is not about the Vietnam War and not even about any soldiers. I was curious and looked it up on google, etc. And according to the man who wrote the song, it is actually about a criminal who has been in prison and is coming home after finishing his sentence and not knowing how he will be welcomed thus the yellow ribbon to show he is welcome. And the song doesn't say anything about fighting or Vietnam. I Finished school back then, in 1968 and was in the service, but I am glad that I never went to Vietnam. Of all the wars we have had as a country, it seems like the worst with perhaps the exception of the Civil War, and of all the Presidents that we had Nixon was surely one of the worst. I am glad that neither I nor my sons ever did any dying or killing for Nixon, but a lot of other people's kids did.

[Mike M]

I signed up in '66. Retired '90. USN. "Kansas City Lights" is about coming home from Navy deployment. "Last train to Clarksville" is about an Army soldier going to Vietnam. Kris's "Vietnam Blues" is also about orders to 'Nam, actually written by a soldier. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" isn't about the John Wayne movie. It's about a guy getting out of prison. When the first yellow ribbons started going up for servicemembers after that song, I thought, "what an insult." But hey, returning convicts, returning vets, all the same, right? Yeah, right.

[rwanttaja]

I wonder how many vets really know the history of that song that they think is about coming home from Nam. It is not about the Vietnam War and not even about any soldiers. I was curious and looked it up on google, etc. And according to the man who wrote the song, it is actually about a criminal who has been in prison and is coming home after finishing his sentence and not knowing how he will be welcomed thus the yellow ribbon to show he is welcome.

Yep. Then again, how many politicians have used "Born in the USA" as a theme song...?

But the yellow ribbon tradition far, FAR pre-dates Tony Orlando....

Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore it in the springtime, and in the month of May
And if you asked, whyever did she wear it,
She wore it for her lover, in the US Cavalry

CAVALRY!

CAVALRY!

She wore it for her lover in the US Cavalry!

Ron "Where's John Agar when you need him" Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

That Yellow Ribbon is much better semblance than the Tony Orlando song about some guy getting out of the slammer.

The use of the TO thing seems to have started with the Iranian Embassy Hostages, but kind of snowballed from there. I don't recall any use of that from the Vietnam War. It didn't even come out until 1973. The US was officially out of the war before it was released. I do remember POW bracelets and the bulk of the POWs were repatriated before that song was a hit several months later.

And I'm not sure that was a joke or not, but Dawn isn't someone's name (the usual joke is I know which one Tony is, but which one is Orlando and which is Dawn) but the name of the entire group (the group has had up to 4 female backup singers on the record later switched to two singers who toured with the group). In fact for the release of Tie A Yellow Ribbon, it was listed as "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", so it's clearly the name of the group, not just the background singers behind TO.