[August 23, 2025] Hello General. Just finished watching the Phillies win another game. A lot of people are happy in the Delaware valley tonight. General, a great custom at ball games these days are when there are two outs every one stands and gets out of their seats, waiting for a victory.
General, after our meeting Monday at Atlantic Cape Community College, about the final Arrival of the traveling Vietnam Wall coming soon, these important months of planning to just make sure we do it right and welcome the Traveling Vietnam Wall with almost 59,000 men and women heroes on it receive the biggest thank you and signs of love they deserve. Almost everyone of age in Unites States recognizes the wall and what it means to our freedom.
Most on the wall were very young. Over half General, were still teenagers. Stop and think General of this great loss of life to our heroes and their families. Many families are still suffering this tremendous loss even 50 to 60 years later.
Another symbol of not only the Vietnam War but all wars will be the POW/MIA chair This chair represents over 80,000 soldiers still missing and not home yet.
While visiting the Wall, we will have volunteers on hand to answer any questions, find names, explain the history of the wall and we will even have support teams to help comfort and listen to the stories loved ones want to share about who they know that are on the wall or still missing.
But on this great occasion during the wall visit, there will be another reminder of the casualties of war. On the grounds right near the Vietnam Wall, will be an empty chair. This chair will be sitting right under the American Flagpole. I would like to tell all about this very important chair and what it means.
This sacred chair that also like our Wall represents our heroes. Still somewhere overseas these soldiers are waiting to be found and returned home to their loved ones. This promise was made by the Unites States Government to never leave a Veteran behind. We must find and bring all home.
General, when our soldiers are born, they are carried home from the hospital in their moms’ arms. I guess we can say that moms’ arms are the first chair our soldiers ever sat in. After a few months these very young soldiers get introduced to a car seat. Soon in many of these precious soldiers’ lives they will be sitting on a seat in a jeep, truck, boat, airplane fighting for our freedom.
Very soon General, these future young heroes will find themselves in a highchair. General, the only thing I can compare to our soldiers’ time in a highchair is the mess they made eating their food. But you see General, if we remember the mess on our highchair table it kind of looks like what we ate out of our very old sea rations in Vietnam.
Soon we get promoted to a kitchen chair. We are now allowed to be like the rest of our family at the kitchen table.
Soon General, we find ourselves in very small school chairs. Being taught reading, writing and history. Little did they know that someday they would be in those history books having their story told. Children will be learning about freedom and what it cost. Going to high school found us sitting on trolley, bus or train seats taking us to the next great journey in our young lives.
During this journey of chairs and seats, we will get introduced to beach chairs, movies theater seats, golf cart seats and even benches we sit on while playing ball. Just as important to us as our legs and arms that we use all day, the chair we sit in at home is very important. How would we watch a ball game from our living room or sports bar if we didn’t have seats.
I guess everyone is wondering why I am talking so much about these chairs and seats. Well over 80,000 veterans are still not home and that is what these POW/MIA chairs all over our country represent. These chairs remain empty at major sports stadiums, college stadiums, high schools and colleges. They sit inside or outside Veterans Posts all over our country. If you ever visit the Capitol in Washington, DC you will see a long overdue beautiful chair empty, still waiting for a hero to come home.
My wish and hope are that someday we have to announce that we can remove all our POW/MIA chair wherever they are because all our heroes are back homes with their loved ones.
Please share the word of our POW/MIA chairs. They remind us of every time we see them what the cost of our freedom is.
Please remember to come to visit the Wall on September 16th til the 20th. Pay respect, say a prayer, and even touch the wall. Please also look at the POW/MIA empty chair. Do not sit it in because it is reserved for the BEST OF THE BEST NOT HOME YET.
Thanks, and Love to all Joe
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Please read my books:
Sir, well said!!!! Welcome home.
🙏 Joe, you have a special, wonderful way with allegory. Well done. I certainly enjoyed every word. 🙏
FYI, Winston Churchill’s has a legacy of noble thoughts and actions in defense of Western democracy, which he called (with characteristic wit) “the worst form of government except for all the others.” I do think that Joe Griffies is beginning to look a lot like Winston himself.
Ha HA, good one, Wellington.
🇺🇸 Like Gen. Satterfield and yourself, I’m another American Patrriot and proud of our country. Are we perfect? No. Like when so many of the leftist politicians and their clueless followers spat on and degraded our returning veterans. Their evil still echoes to this day. My dad served there in the 1st Inf Div and was always a patriot as well. It mattered not that he thought the war was righteous or not. His country ask3d him to go, and he did so with his head held high. That’s the great legacy of us Americans and we will always remember those who stood against our Vietnam vets, and their shame will always be with them. Their descent into that hell is deserving. 🇺🇸
Well done, sir! I hope to attend. If I can get my son to drive me there.
Mr.Joe, thank you sir, and welcome home. 🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖🫡🙏❤️👏😀
As I expect, another great read of a Joe Griffies post about our hero Vietnam War soldiers and marines. I’m not a veteran, so my knowledge is limited but since I was a kid, my dad taught me to respect our military, police, fire, and EMTs. He was a real stickler about it. Don’t complain about anything, be the person in the room with a solution. That what I think about whenever I read these articles by Joe. Loving them all. Thank you sir, and Welcome Home.
Hey, False Idols, I see from today’s article (8/24/2025) that there is a big event scheduled near where Gen. Satterfield lives in southern New Jersey that honors our Vietnam War veterans. Now, that is the place to be and I hear that Joe Griffies is one of their speakers. An opportunity awaits.
https://www.theleadermaker.com/a-special-invitation-to-thank-vietnam-veterans/
Joe Griffies, if you are not married, let me know if you need a wife. Not kidding. I’m always looking out for a military man.
Thank you, Joe!
Another beautiful letter, and again thank you, Mr. Joe Griffies. Welcome home. Like I wrote last year in an article, loved this letter to Gen. Satterfield. You are both my heroes.
WELCOME HOME
WELCOME HOME
WELCOME
Sir, you are the very best of our Vietnam Vets, so keep up the great works you are doing.
Beautifully written. Great to see you back on Gen. Satterfield’s website. Our Vets are undervalued.
🫡
Powerful comments:
“I guess everyone is wondering why I am talking so much about these chairs and seats. Well over 80,000 veterans are still not home and that is what these POW/MIA chairs all over our country represent. These chairs remain empty at major sports stadiums, college stadiums, high schools and colleges. They sit inside or outside Veterans Posts all over our country. If you ever visit the Capitol in Washington, DC you will see a long overdue beautiful chair empty, still waiting for a hero to come home.
My wish and hope are that someday we have to announce that we can remove all our POW/MIA chair wherever they are because all our heroes are back homes with their loved ones.” – Joe Griffies
True, Winston. We have the average American who wants to help and loves our veterans but sometimes I don’t think our elected politicians do. Too many of these officials just grift off the American taxpayers like Nancy Pelosi. She got rich screwing us over. And she has said that our veterans are not heroes.
Judy, indeed too many are in it for themselves and that’s when I’m happy to hear when a vet gets elected.
GREAT MESSAGE THANKYOU
Mr. Joe, thank you sir for your service to our nation as a Vietnam War vet and for continuing to fight on our behalf.
USS Cabildo (LSD-16)
1965 Vietnam
Navy Vet, thank you for your service. I hope you got a chance to read Gen. Satterfield’s books, espcially the one on “55 rules for a good life” which is my personal fav. Each time I read it, the more I learn how to be a better person.