Coming Home

Indybear57
Moderator
Posts: 258
(5/7/01 10:17:15 pm)
| Del All
ezSupporter
Coming Home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What did you find had changed the most when you returned home from your tour of duty?

Mithrandir
Member
Posts: 22
(5/8/01 12:21:58 pm)
| Del Re: Coming Home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I got spat on regularly in CA and generally ignored when at home....






out

homer4
Moderator
Posts: 502
(5/8/01 1:22:06 pm)
| Del Re: Coming Home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Me for the most part Mike.They also were in the final stages of demolition of the Town of Sparrows Point that I had called home.Talking about breaking the heart...absolutely got to me and I cried and cried.All gone.

I can imagine how the Vietnamee villagers must have felt...not the VC mind you...Zippo them inside their hooch for all I care...but I do feel for those that suffered seeing everything in their world go up in smoke.
...and two hard boiled eggs.

dap22
Senior Chief Moderator II
Posts: 1128
(9/4/01 6:58:00 pm)
| Del
ezSupporter
Re: Coming Home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very good question and one worth reviving. Like Homer, I guess it was me who changed the most. Like Mithrandir, coming through SF International Airport I and 4 of my fellow pilots were spit on coming through the entry way by a band of about 100 protesters......hippie types. It sure as hell gave me a wake up call as to what to expect. When I got home, I told my father (a WWI vet) about it and he told me that that was certainly not the silent marjority speaking. My response to him was that that was the ONLY reception I received.
The people from my hometown were cordial but interestingly hardly anyone asked about Vietnam. I guess they figured I didn't want to speak about it. More interestingly, other than at social gatherings, during my leave, only a few things were said and a several were not complimentary by a couple people who might have had one too many. Again, of interest, neither my wife, her family, or my family would ever bring up the subject of Vietnam and figuring they didn't want to hear about it, neither did I.... I guess it remained a mystery to most everyone close to me.
After my leave, I went to my duty station at Fort Wolters, Texas, where, to their credit, there seemed to be a more open and postive attitude about Vietnam and those who were there. Of course, I've always known the South to be more military friendly. And I believe that's very much true today. Once at Fort Wolters, most everyone was a Vietnam returnee or those we were teaching to fly were on their way. Much talk occurred concerning Vietnam and I think it was good therapy to talk about it.
Most of all, other than the changes that happened to me I think the thing that most changed was the prevalent hostile attitude that the media seemed to portray in the way they viewed those "crazy Vietnam vets". I guess I was guilty by association.

nighthawk
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 319
(9/6/01 1:32:46 pm)
| Del Re: Coming Home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hate to sound like an echo, but I think I, like almost every one, would say that I was the thing most changed by my time in Vietnam. Even those of us that were a little older than the average GI had to have been changed by what we saw and did. And it did not necessarily take being involved in combat.

Just being exposed to the different culture, the poverty, the violence, the danger. Also, the warmth of the Vietnamese people, their courage and perserverence, and their trust that we would help "make all right".

When I came home, I looked at what I had thought as being "poor" and realized my family had so very much compared to what I had just left.

Much of what I learned I continued to see as I travelled around this big old world. Before VN, I looked at things more as a tourist would. After, I tried to see it as a local person would.
As to issues in the US, the protesting had begun long before I left, so it was nothing new. I was, like many, though, very suprised with the vehemence the protestors attacked the individual soldiers. Before I went, I had talked with a lot of people who opposed the war, but not the soldier. It seemed to be worse when I returned. Perhaps, it only seemed that way because now it was directed straight at me as an individual.

Stan H ,, nighthawk