It still hurts

[dee222]

I was at a small show which had a Vietnam section of items on display. During one of my breaks I got talking to a guy wearing a 101st

ball cap anyway it turns out he served in Vietnam 67/68, he came from Minnesota and was drafted in late 66 before Vietnam he worked as a gardener on a estate . He was sent to nam thinking he was going to the 4th inf but on arrival was sent to the 1st inf were he

spent 5 months he was then sent to 101st as a straight leg he fought in 1st brigade , the war still upsets him but his real problems started when he got home, he got his old job back but it was never the same people asked him stupid question spat at him even the

owners son called him a killer which was the last straw as this guy had been send to collage in Canada to keep him out of the way

so he left the u.s. he ended up hear and has lived hear ever since he has made a life hear has a family but has only gone home twice

both times to visit the wall when talking to him you could feel the sadness in his voice it was plane to see from the talk we had he

still loves his country he just feel it don't love him.

[ScottG]

" he ended up hear and has lived hear ever since"

 

Where is "here?" Scott.

[dee222]

He lives in INVERNESS SCOTLAND

[Jim Baker]

I think he might find now that people have a different view.

[Jack's Son]

I think he might find now that people have a different view.

Your right Jim! However, this man has found his peace, and may never want to take the chance of rejection again.

[grovb]

truly sad

[USMCRECON]

When I came home from Nam in the summer of 1968, I flew home in my khaki tropical Marine uniform with my ribbons proudly worn. My parents, aunts, uncle, and girl friend met me at O'Hare airport.....at that time anyone could walk right up to the gate. After a rather lengthy reunion at the gate, we started walking down the corridor toward the main terminal. Where two corridors came together and led to the main, there was a group of protestors yelling and screaming. These individuals had no frame of reference for their point of view and I didn't give a crap or care less what they said/thought and felt sorry for their ignorance. I had just survived an extended combat tour as a Recon Marine and all I wanted to was go home but that quickly changed.

 

One of them stepped out of the gaggle and threw a bag of excrement at me. That immediately made it personal between him and me and I knocked him to the floor. As the his group started screaming and crying that I was killing him, two Airport Duty Chicago Police officers appeared; I thought I was going to jail before ever set foot in my house. They picked crap-boy up off the floor and while my mother and aunts were starting to cry, I prepared to be arrested. But, to my surprise, they told me not to worry, they'd seen the whole thing. They handcuffed him and took him off to jail charged with assault. The fact they were protesting the war didn't bother me. The fact they focused on me personally was hurtful and I took it as personally as their attacks on me were. Over the years of the late 60s and early 70s I experienced a couple similar incidents of being focused on by protesters but never reacted unless individually and personally attacked.

 

I also had some quite opposite experiences in recent years with people coming up to me to thank me for my service. Some looked old enough to have been of "protest age" in the 60s and others much younger. I certainly don't go around trolling for this sort of gratitude but it's a good feeling when it happens and I see men and women in today's military being thanked for their service.

 

Today I feel no residual anger toward the ordinary protesters who were merely protesting our government's involvement in the war....I fought for their right to do that. The displays of gratitude for service shown by citizens of late, while much appreciated, will never alleviate the anger and contempt I felt, and still feel, toward those who made me their individual target, particularly those who personally attacked me, physically. That's just the double-edged sword many Nam vets deal with regarding those old protesters; we endeavor to persevere.

[hardstripe]

Sadly our warriors defend the US Constitution that gives protestors the right to freedom of speech. After nearly 40 years I wonder if those protestors still feel the same way they did then.

[USARV72]

When I came home from RVN,landed at LAX, got a shower, shave and had my Khaki's pressed. Dog tired from the ride on Flying Tiger's with "granny stewardess's" walked through the terminal to catch my flight east , some guy with a trench coat came up to me and said,"hey buddy, wanna buy a watch"? he pulled the sleeve of the trench coat showing about 20 watches! Told him get the hell away from me. There were some protesters but LEO kept them outside. I don't think about Vietnam every day, but once or twice a week I remember events that I'll never forget. Once in a while some one will ask me, "when were you in Vietnam?"sometimes I tell them,"last night, yesterday or last week" as those events are forever in my mind.

[rr01]

I missed all that...went to another overseas assignment. As for the subject of this topic he is where he is and is not unique as I have several friends, fellow Viet vets who are ex~pats in various places around the globe. One even has a son serving in the British Army as a machine gunner.

[littlebuddy]

He lives in INVERNESS SCOTLAND

 

what a lovely part of the uk to live in !!

[Garandomatic]

My dad has buddy that was in Korea during the VN war at a nuke base. When he came home in his full dress greens, drunk as a skunk, he had to make a transfer to get to the midwest. This might have been 1969 or 70, so it wasn't a good time to come home in uniform. Anyways, he's pretty far gone, can barely walk, and who should pop up and help him but some hippie. Got him on his flight and everything. Maybe the hippie had already done his time in the service and wasn't among the protest kind.

 

Then there's Dad's other buddy, great guy, too. Came home via San Francisco in 1968 and had dog crap thrown on him. Peaceful people with flowers in their hair my foot. Tom ended up with health issues from Agent Orange and beat cancer several times before he decided he was done with it. Chinook crew chief, mountain of a man that was darned good to have as a friend and feared only one thing: snakes (one of those step& a half or 2 step snakes killed his buddy in a hole one night when they were taking mortar fire). He checked out the same day my son was born.

[ryksem]

When I came home from Nam in the summer of 1968, I flew home in my khaki tropical Marine uniform with my ribbons proudly worn. My parents, aunts, uncle, and girl friend met me at O'Hare airport.....at that time anyone could walk right up to the gate. After a rather lengthy reunion at the gate, we started walking down the corridor toward the main terminal. Where two corridors came together and led to the main, there was a group of protestors yelling and screaming. These individuals had no frame of reference for their point of view and I didn't give a crap or care less what they said/thought and felt sorry for their ignorance. I had just survived an extended combat tour as a Recon Marine and all I wanted to was go home but that quickly changed.

 

One of them stepped out of the gaggle and threw a bag of excrement at me. That immediately made it personal between him and me and I knocked him to the floor. As the his group started screaming and crying that I was killing him, two Airport Duty Chicago Police officers appeared; I thought I was going to jail before ever set foot in my house. They picked crap-boy up off the floor and while my mother and aunts were starting to cry, I prepared to be arrested. But, to my surprise, they told me not to worry, they'd seen the whole thing. They handcuffed him and took him off to jail charged with assault. The fact they were protesting the war didn't bother me. The fact they focused on me personally was hurtful and I took it as personally as their attacks on me were. Over the years of the late 60s and early 70s I experienced a couple similar incidents of being focused on by protesters but never reacted unless individually and personally attacked.

 

I also had some quite opposite experiences in recent years with people coming up to me to thank me for my service. Some looked old enough to have been of "protest age" in the 60s and others much younger. I certainly don't go around trolling for this sort of gratitude but it's a good feeling when it happens and I see men and women in today's military being thanked for their service.

 

Today I feel no residual anger toward the ordinary protesters who were merely protesting our government's involvement in the war....I fought for their right to do that. The displays of gratitude for service shown by citizens of late, while much appreciated, will never alleviate the anger and contempt I felt, and still feel, toward those who made me their individual target, particularly those who personally attacked me, physically. That's just the double-edged sword many Nam vets deal with regarding those old protesters; we endeavor to persevere.

Can't believe people actually acted that way, when I was reading about the person who attacked you at O'Hare it made me wanna beat the crap out of 'em. Thanks for your service, it means a lot.

[SFMike]

There were a few bad incidents-very few.

They have taken on a life of their own.

There is a certain type veteran who relishes this persona, whether it happened to them or not.

 

I returned both in 69 and 70 and never saw any problems.

I have interviewed a great many vets over the years and find the extreme protests to be very rare.

It seem a lot of them were in San Francisco, but many guys report having great times there.

 

To be sure, a lot of civilians simply did not know how to handle us and the media helped that a great deal.

We were surely popular criminal characters and perpetrators for a while.

Mostly we simply went home, back to school, or work and blended right in.

We were not sent off to save the world like our fathers had been and had no reason to expect any fanfare.

Our generation was the first to be raised on easy street, and I believe we were a bit spoiled and expected too much.

Our war was spoiled by cowardly politicians and fat cat industrialists who had a vested interes in prolonging it.

We were just there to get the South Vietnamese on their feet and that failed on several levels.

Even as draftees we mostly did a pretty good job.