http://www.oralhistory.ws/tpl/norton_audio.php?file=67aff361ddf4862f266f9a5f53cb1bff412d7ae5.mp3

Mr. Thompson, an accomplished musician and native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania served in the navy during the Vietnam War aboard the USS Constellation, an aircraft carrier. During his 9-month cruise near the Vietnam coast, aircraft from the carrier bombed North Vietnam. The Constellation also mined Haiphong Harbor, North Vietnam's only major harbor. Mr. Hardy, now a Buddhist, recalls protesting the Vietnam War in college, and found himself opposed to it even more while he served: "You really have to question why we were there. I would definitely defend my family if someone attacked my family. And if someone attacked this country. But as a Buddhist war is a most horrible thing. It is the very last resort. Thats not the way we did it in Vietnam. It was not the very, very last resort. You know I protested the war before I joined the Navy after I got back from the war I had tremendous conviction that war should not ever exist. To me looking back on it it was just a way for a few people to make a lot of money."