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This weekend I attended my 50th high school class reunion. (yes, 1/2 century).

I grew up in a small town in a rural area. My senior graduating class consisted of 32 students, 19 boys, 13 girls.

Of the 32, 4 have died so far leaving 28 of us. Of those 28, just over half 15 turned out for the reunion. 3 boys and one girl have died leaving us with 16 of the boys and 12 of the girls.

7 of the 12 surviving girls turned out for the reunion this weekend, and 8 of the 16 boys.

I found out that of those 16 surviving boys, 9 are Vietnam vets who served in Vietnam. Seven did not go to Vietnam, and 3 I have lost contact with and cannot determine if they did or not.
Of the 8 that showed up this weekend, 7 were Vietnam vets who served.

I can't find any statistics, but I suspect that the high school class of 1966 carried the heaviest load in the Vietnam war as we were at the right age just when needed the most. But, even at that, few classes likely had the 50% service rate that my class had. The great thing is that 100% of the war Vets in my class are still living today. The 3 male classmates we lost were in the group that did not go to Vietnam.

In discussion with my classmates, we decided that we probably were unusually lucky to all be alive after the war and still today too.

I dont know this for fact, but a Vietnam Vet told me that of those exposed to Agent Orange only have about a 50 year life expectancy.

That might be an average number for a person with heavy exposure to Agent Orange, but like all statistics, it usually has no merit. I was in areas sprayed with Agent Orange, and most of my classmates were too. I guess we beat the odds because we all made it age 68 so far.

Agent Orange is like any other carcinogen. Statistics say that smokers can expect to develop emphysema between the ages of 40 and 60, but not all do. Some live to 90 without getting it.

X wife mother smoked right up to 86 when she died from non related item, and from the time I know her in the early 90s, drank 16 bottles of beer a day. Had 5 cases delivered every Tuesday. Start in the morning after coffee.

I also went to a small high school in a framing town. Last Jan there were about 20 of us got together for breakfast one morning. I found out that all of us except one had gone to the Army and 4 of us never went to Nam but to Germany. The ones tha went to Nam several got purple hearts. Several of us stayed in the Reserves after active duty and all of us had over 20 years in. Next May will be our 50th reunion I was in the class of 1967 with about 50 others. I know of about 10 or 12 have passed away