“The Weight They Carried” – New Song for Vietnam Veterans

Scroll down to watch “The Weight They Carried” – New Song for Vietnam Veterans video

The Weight They Carried is a song written by singer/songwriter/patriot Justin Ploof as an overdue thank you to the veterans of the Vietnam War. It’s for those that came home and were treated poorly by those who opposed our involvement in the war.

Tonight on Veterans Live Show Justin will be performing LIVE and sharing his touching music video. Justin will also explain how he intends to donate any and all proceeds from the song to help the Vietnam Veteran community.

Visit justinploof.com to download the song or to make a donation

“The Weight They Carried” – New Song for Vietnam Veterans

Watch the Veterans Live Show on YouTube every Wednesday at 8:30pm EST

TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.

okay good evening vietnam
live from elsie bunker this is veterans
live show i’m your host ronnie embrace i
serve at 101st airborne division of
vietnam from december 1967 to december
1968.
on tonight’s show we’re going to talk
with singer and songwriter
justin blue justin has brought his new
vietnam veteran trippy music video with
him it will explain how this song is not
only touching but will also give back to
veterans
we’ll get to all that in just a few
moments but first i’d like to let you
know that the program is brought to you
by the vietnam veterans book fallen
never forgotten
vietnam memorials in the usa
it has one memorial from each state
and information on how got the money to
fund it how it got the land what
happened on dedication day and list all
the guys who never came home
from vietnam alphabetically from each
state
okay
you can visit volume neverforgotten.com
for more information or to purchase your
copy
okay justin how you doing come on in bro
there you are hey how you doing sir
thanks for having me tonight no don’t
call me sir i was a sergeant i work for
a living
okay
uh so before you play your song here
tell us a little bit about what inspired
you to write this beautiful piece oh
thank you yeah i um you know i i grew up
uh in a musical household i’m
started playing music quite young
playing in church playing in different
bands and um i got into songwriting uh
sort of a natural progression to things
and
a while back
i come from a long line of military
family and a lot of family friends
and now friends of mine that are
veterans including some that were in
vietnam
and
you know the most simple
shortest answer i guess is
it it always bothered me the way that
vietnam veterans were treated when they
came home and i always found it to be
absolutely
the saddest thing and really shameful
and i
finally hit this point where i just
thought well if it bothers you that bad
what are you gonna do about it right and
so
uh you know the folks always taught me
it’s you know take action right if you
want to see something better you got to
take action yourself and so
i i wrote this song based on uh friends
of mine that i’ve
known now over the years that are
vietnam veterans it’s based on their
first person accounts of of uh their
experience there and and coming home
uh other other things that i um
you know have seen on television or or
documentaries
and so yeah i just set out to write this
song basically trying to tell your guys
story the best that i could and i hope i
hope
i hope i did you guys proud
and um it you know starts out just
talking about
you know for a lot of you your your
grandfathers were in world war one or
dads were then in world war ii or uh
korea and so it felt like for a lot of
you there’s a lot of a lot of patriotism
and a lot of pride in your country and
so it felt like the right thing to do to
serve your country
and uh kind of starts and walks you
through that and boot camp and being
over there and then having to come home
and i i called the song the weight that
carried um which is it’s sort of a it’s
you know similar to the things that
carried by tim o’brien i’m sure you’ve
read his book
and um
just this invisible weight that that you
guys had to carry around and i just i
guess if anything i just wanted to be
the overdue thank you
that you all deserve and you deserved it
then and i hope it’s you know not to
sound cliche i just hope it’s never too
late
so i hope that this can bring some uh
some reconciliation and
i was watching ken burns vietnam and i
was trying to figure out the ending of
this song and there’s a gentleman by the
name of john musgrave and he was talking
about his experience of being at the
wall and so that’s i wanted to end on a
positive thing and so reconciliation
happens at the vietnam war memorial in
the song
and so because of that also um all the
proceeds anybody can donate whatever
they want to pay for the song but every
penny that goes into this i’m i’m
funding this all out of pocket and i’ve
also had some wonderful people donate
their time to help too but every every
penny that comes in is going to actually
go back to being donated to the vietnam
war memorial and the vietnam veterans of
america
well thank you so much with that
all right we’re gonna show the video
right now
okay
i could get a drink of my coffee
i was born on the 4th of july
stars and stripes and american pride
granddaddy came back from a war in
france
daddy for the war against internment
camps
i turned 18 i was bold and brave
then i heard the call from lbj
he said son i need you in a foreign land
so i say goodbye for fear
[Music]
[Applause]
sent me down from my boot camp
to tear me down and build me back
i said welcome to your home two dicks
you’re fighting for our politics
then i found myself on my way to a
foreign shore
asked to fight another man i never met
before
lord please help me
get back home
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
marched up day in the highlands
with the sun in my eyes and a gun in my
hand
every day was like the one before
hot as hell and when it rained it poured
then a man on his throne saigon
said take that hill till charlie’s gone
[Music]
rest assured we’re gonna win this war
but i was never sure how they
[Music]
we were brothers and ours
[Music]
i get to go back home
[Music]
found my way back to my hometown
there was no parade no job well done
they spit on me and through words like
stones
yelling baby killer and the list goes on
so i hid my pot for my service done
[Music]
until they built the wall for the fallen
ones
i found my way to that wall in june
i saw people there
healing woes
then a woman said excuse me sir
you probably don’t remember me but
i remember you
i was there the day
you came home
i was there yelling the insults throne
[Applause]
i’m sorry for the things we said
you were the best of our generation
honorable men
please forgive the things i did
[Music]
i hope you can find it in your heart to
forgive
[Applause]
i said i love my country a country that
didn’t want me back
so i’ll thank you kindly for that olive
branch
maybe one day
we can find peace in a world all torn
maybe one day
we can stop sending our kids to war
i was born on the 4th of july
stars and stripes in american pride
[Music]
well
that time i got through it without the
tears the first time i must admit
and it’s okay because i’ve been doing it
for 50 years
i’m not going to write a song but that
rhymed
so
thank you so much for that josh that was
incredible really man you touch all the
bases
uh
thank you how uh
i mean
once you got inspired to do it how do
you put it all together all the pieces
because it seems like it’s complete
yeah i you know i’ll
it’s not one of those songs that came in
short order it was something i had to
work on for a while um and kind of going
back and forth and there’s some lyrics
that i wrote that never made the final
the final cut
um and so you know i think it’s you know
i got the initial idea you know and then
you start kind of thinking about all the
people you know and some of the stories
they told you
and some of those different things and
you start just trying to tell the story
and like i said i you know
you just hope that you you just hope
that you do the people proud that you’re
doing it for and um
yeah it was uh
i’m a religious guy i don’t always i
don’t believe that it’s fully of
of me that this song came i think this
is hopefully this song is going to serve
a bigger purpose than me
and so i think that’s a lot of of where
the song came from too
it’s really uh
uh
okay it’s so complete
and where was the where did they get
filled from the family members and
friends
yeah so all the veterans that are in
there are some of them i knew personally
and some some of them came through some
of the mutual people that i knew
and uh yeah we we wanted to wanted we
thought it was really important we
wanted to showcase some of the veterans
as well in this in this video
um and so they were all gracious enough
to to give their time and show up to our
shooting location that day and and i and
they were um
just wonderful just absolutely wonderful
wonderful people and
it’s uh it’s amazing sometimes i i think
you know knowing them now and and the
age that they’re at and being so
soft-spoken and you know grandparents
right you know and you think welcome at
times yeah you know but but these
soft-spoken you know grandparents now
and you forget that when they were even
younger than me they were half the world
away
right yeah that’s some yeah
that’s what i’d like to know a little
deeper there
was there uh information or inspiration
given to the lyrics from
the people that i got to know you
interviewed or you talked to or you
lived around that thing yeah yeah for
instance one of the uh the gentleman in
the video the guy with the longer beard
um is a is a good friend of mine his
name is terry nystrom and uh terry’s an
absolute
absolute sweetheart of a guy and the
part where i’m talking about uh you know
coming home being called the baby killer
and different things like that when he
um
he was he was in vietnam got there at
the actually december of 67 came home
december 68 just like you
and uh he had no idea um what was going
on really over here or how bad it had
gotten um he told me stories of being
out of the whole year he was there he
was at his base camp i think he said
five total days
otherwise right yeah yeah yeah on the
field and so he had no idea so when he
was flying home he was going to land
first in um
in oakland and he was informed to just
hurry up and get to his gate don’t look
at anybody don’t talk to anybody
just get to your gate and uh and he did
that
but he was assaulted on the way to his
plane to minneapolis to get to mid back
to minneapolis and then when he landed
in minneapolis it was the same thing and
he said thankfully his father was there
to pick him up and
they had physical altercations with
these people um at the airport
calling them names and trying to you
know physically hurt them
and so you know i think that was a that
was something when i heard that’s you
know you hear those stories but to hear
it
firsthand from somebody you know it it
really it affects you it kind of affects
you know
yeah well and that was 50 years ago
right and it seems like some of that
stuff is still going on
i know
yeah
that’s america i mean we have a right to
speak our peace but you know what i mean
yeah it’s uh challenging at times to uh
maintain that peace
yeah we’re gonna talk about the
donations uh yeah how long you’ve been
how long have you been singing and
songwriting
uh so i’ve been i’ve been you know
singing and like i said probably since i
was i started playing guitar and i was
about 12 years old
but started doing it professionally more
in my teens and and getting more into
writing songs in my teenage years um
and so uh but this particular song that
was actually just released not about a
week ago was released i wanted to
release it on veterans day it was great
it felt like the right day to do it so
it’s been out in the world um
for what six days now right and uh
through the generosity of many people
we’ve uh already raised about a thousand
dollars yeah tell us what about the
donations
where they’re gonna go and how they get
there yeah so actually that probably the
easiest way for people to find if they
want to find the backstory of what i’m
doing or contact me or um
links for donations they can actually go
directly to my website which is my my
first and last name so justin
plouffe.com and there’s a whole page
dedicated to this song and what we’re
doing and again from there they can view
the video they can read the backstory
behind everything a little bit more um
there’s a link directly for them to to
make a donation or again they can pay
they can download the song for whatever
price they choose to pay but it’s all
right there and as i mentioned earlier
just to reiterate um every penny of this
is going to go to the vietnam war
memorial and the vietnam veterans of
america so i’m actually looking really
forward to uh
to uh getting in contact with somebody
at the uh at the wall and letting them
know what we’re doing and and letting
them know that i’ll be sending a nice
donation thanks to so many generous
people well let me check with my staff
we’re ready for the play
yeah yeah okay getting ready are you
gonna play for us you want me should i
do the whole thing yeah man let’s go
give him the thing tease him up good
this is the uh the second time i’ve ever
done this before man so
harvey’s live anyway you’re a
professional
professional
all right well again this is uh this
one’s for you and and all your brothers
and sisters and uh
thank you thank
[Music]
you i was born on the fourth of july
[Music]
stars and stripes and american pride
granted that i came back from a war in
france
and daddy fought a war against
internment camps
[Music]
i turned 18 i was born and brave
then i heard the call from lbj
he said son i need you in a foreign land
so i said goodbye for vietnam
send me down from my boot count
to tear me down and build me back
i said welcome to your home for its
dicks
fighting for our politics
[Music]
then i found myself on my way to
[Music]
asked if foreign had another man i’d
never met before
lord please help me
get back home
[Music]
marched all day in the highlands
with the sun in my eyes and a gun in my
hand
every day he was like the one before
[Music]
hot is heaven when it rained it poured
then a man on his throne saigon
said take that hill till charlie’s gone
rest assured we’re gonna win this war
but i was never sure how they were
keeping score
then they’ll rain down as we ran up
toward a gunfire storm
fighting for each other we were brothers
and arms
young men died and gave their lives in
this hell we call war
so why do i get to go back home
[Music]
[Applause]
i found my way back to my hometown
but there was no parades no job well
done
[Music]
they spit on me through words like
stones
yelling baby killer and the list goes on
so i hid my pride for my service done
until they built a wall for the fallen
ones
[Music]
i found my way to that wall in june
i saw people there healing wounds
then a woman said excuse me sir
you probably don’t remember me but
i remember you
i was there the day
you came home
and i was there yelling the insults
throne
i’m sorry for the things we said
you are the best of our generation
honorable men
please forgive the things i did
[Music]
i hope you can find it in your heart to
forgive
[Music]
i said i love my country
a country that didn’t want me back
and so i’ll thank you kindly
for that olive branch
maybe one day
we can find peace in a world all torn
maybe one day
we can stop sending our kids to war
[Music]
i was born on the 4th of july
styles and stripes and american pride
[Music]
driver man salute you probably bravo
thank you at least this time i didn’t
wet to wet the
place down with my tears but that’s okay
50 years later i can still cry at the
most important things in life to me
thank you god bless you that was
unbelievable man
so uh what do you do from here
you know i think uh moving forward i’m
just hoping to uh you know team up with
people like yourselves and just be able
to get the word out about this it’s just
i i
this is really near and dear to me and
and i i hope it’s touching
you know all the right people that need
to hear this and
you know the wall
they really need funding to keep it keep
it up and keep it beautiful and keep it
as a as a as a monument that people need
to go and see and our younger generation
need to know about it and i’m you know
look forward to
talking about all the bravery that you
know you guys and and men and women that
went to vietnam
um what you guys did and what you had to
do when you came back and why it’s so
important to remember that and so i i
just really want to see
that continue to happen and i want to
see the wall always be taken care of
um for all future generations
coincidentally i read today on
uh
either facebook or
google somewhere that one-third of the
vietnam veterans are gone
mm-hmm i’ve read that too yeah that’s a
lot that’s a lot of people and
a lot of other ones are laying into bed
somewhere with
results of agent orange
and other conditions not not war written
but the ao is right
so yeah it’s uh
you know
it’s never too late 50 years what the
heck
50 years later
excuse me so can we get a recap of the
website again
yeah
give us a recap of the website the email
or anything like that yeah yeah so again
if you go to my my website which is just
my first and last name so justin
j-u-s-t-i-n
and then plouffe p is in peter l-o-o-f
as in frank uh dot com justinproof.com
there’s a whole page just dedicated to
again where people can go they can see
that video um share the video with
people
um you know and and again from there
there’s direct links for donations
uh for downloading the song and you can
pay whatever you want and again i’m not
you know i’m not keeping any money from
this
and where are the proceeds going uh all
the proceeds are going to go to the
vietnam war memorial and the vietnam
veterans of america um again i’m not i’m
not taking a penny from this is not what
this is about this is this is really
just giving you guys your your overdue
thank you and and making sure that
people remember that and remember what
you know what everybody went through and
and um
there’s 58
218 names or 281 names on the wall
and so that’s that’s enough
reasons right there to keep keep this
song out there and keep people
um aware of what we’re doing but thank
you so much for that
we’re gonna go to the q a right now okay
okay let it rip
okay denas thank you for your service
well thank me but thank him for his uh
ability to play and sing thank you
thank you dinesh
okay david schifflett
being i’ve been on welcome my brother
brothers love my freedom still going
amen to that thank you david
and patrick balser hello my brother i
enjoy watching your programs thank you
patrick
i got something going to you in the mail
brother get ready if you could
you might have to have five people
carried into your front door no i’m
kidding only kidding
okay ron baker great song you’re not
kidding ron thank you very much thanks
ron appreciate that
patrick again welcome home from
lancaster it’s the old vietnam vet again
ronnie emmett my brother god bless all
my brothers and sisters out there and
welcome home amen thank you
the numbers are dwindling
kurt vatlin thank you for your service
great song any books that
help with the lyrical content
uh you know i i think i can you know
maybe i should i’ll add the lyrics to my
uh to my website if anybody wants to see
those i’ll uh i’ll try to even do that
tonight as soon as we get done with this
program if people want to see the lyrics
or anything like that they are so also
if you go to the uh follow the link for
the donation um and where to download
all the lyrics are on that page as well
but i’ll make sure they get on my
website too for people great
when i first read that i thought he
meant did you get help from books
writing the lyrics oh
sorry that’s what i thought thank you
for thanks for deciphering for me um you
know again um you know uh tim o’brien’s
book the things they carried um was
definitely an inspiration for the title
um but most of the lyric content um came
from like i said firsthand accounts of
people i know
um
ken burns vietnam documentary like i
said um john musgrave who’s featured in
that um a lot of his story really really
touched me and and i’m actually hoping
to send this to john as well and just to
say hey man thanks for the inspiration
and this is for you but um
yeah but other than that i’m trying to
think some other um
where else i got the ideas from again
you know i just i i just believe that uh
this was song was it was just sort of
gifted to me but it’s that’s already for
me you know what you mean yeah
you you need it and you got it yeah okay
thank you for your service great so god
bless you on your program and the joy it
brings to the brotherhood thank you
patrick
kurt valen is this song available for
download and authorized use
at veteran related events
yep so again it’s it’s uh it’s so you
follow the link on the website
justinproof.com go to the wait they
carried page and you can download there
and yes any any veteran related event
any program any group
any way to just get the word out about
what we’re doing i’m giving everybody uh
the the okay right now
use it share away free
you know go ahead get out there
fill the beans that’s right thank you
kurt appreciate bob canton wine justin i
am a vietnam vet and songwriter your
song is compelling your project is
admirable thank you for opening your
heart and creating this song love to you
i love you bob thank you man
very nice
okay we got kurt so good back from kurt
again thank you kurt thanks kurt
and denash justin was awesome such a
beautiful song amen thank you
beauty and powerful
bob cantormind
c company first of the 52nd inspector
398th
light infantry brigade americal division
7071.
very good i was just going to say bob i
you know if you’re a songwriter man
please reach out to me i’d love to
connect with you and i’d love to hear
something that you’ve written to a man
there you go bob you got permission
next ben fook wow you you did your best
you are welcome
thank you ben fook the vietnamese guy
appreciate that
nicole fleming flimke
thank you for both thank you both for
what you’re doing yeah that’s it take
i’m taking it to the grave with me
and don’t don’t have to worry about what
suit i’m wearing you can put my dress
blues on
how’s that
no questions asked
easy enough thank you nicole
jeffrey wallace awesome happening all
the way thank you thank you jeffrey i
appreciate that
all right okay that’s it for those well
thank you so much justin thank you uh
be ready you’ll be getting some you’re
gonna be getting that
uh care package yeah care package storm
oh thank you man thank you you know i’ll
tell you another thing i love about
about this whole thing too is uh
i i like to think i have a new friend in
for after today as well so more problem
with that sir thank you very much thank
you thank you and talk to you soon god
bless you thank you amen
okay boy powerful
first time i heard that before the show
i let loose with about
five shot glasses of tears
that’s
not too many but
it was bad
sometimes you think you get over this
stuff right but ptsd is around all the
time lurking in the corners
in the back uh canyons of your mind
and your memory
and it’s uh sad but true but healthy
because uh
you got to get it out you got to talk
with it talk about it you got to deal
with it you gotta
share it you gotta reminisce
uh
there you go
what a wonderful song great experience
tonight i wanna say thank you very much
don’t forget to order your book fallen
never forgotten the vietnam veterans
book containing once memorial from each
state and all the names of all the guys
who never came home
thank you very much god bless you and
welcome home