CASPER, Wyo. - I had not shed a tear since my father died in 2010. But, here I was, standing in a room full of Vietnam veterans, paying remembrance to the men who stepped off a plane in the humid air of Vietnam, but never stepped onto a Freedom Bird to go home. And the emotions hit me.
To my left stood a man with a clean-shaven face, buttoned up shirt, khakis, a reunion badge with his name and service on it and sunglasses on his head, wiping away tears. To my right, a man with a grayed
beard down to his chest, a T-shirt tucked into his jeans and a vest with a POW/MIA patch on it. His tears were running down the vest.
And in the middle, was me, a son of a Vietnam veteran, who had grown up listening to the stories of patrols in rice paddies, rides in Huey helicopters and the smell of Nuc Man sauce; stories that resembled so many that I heard during the weekend at the Wyoming Vietnam Veterans Reunion in Casper.
In 1973, as acid rock hit the airwaves, moviegoers shrieked at Linda Blair in “The Exorcist,” and the World Trade Center reached for the heavens, American service members returned home from the jungles
and mosquito-infested land of Vietnam.
The appreciation communicated from the home front was as unpleasant as the heat and mosquito bites.
I’m sure that many of you who have deployed or worn the uniform in the community have received handshakes and thank you messages from people aplenty.
For myself, I’ve been thanked and hugged by extremely nice elderly ladies in the Bangor, Maine, airport, unknown families have picked up my bill at restaurants, and embarrassingly for myself, been asked for my autograph from children.
But, I never received so much appreciation than I and my fellow soldiers received from the nearly 700 veterans at the reunion. It was endless, and each moment made me emotional because I knew from my father’s stories, that many of these same veterans, who had in-processed at Cam Ranh Bay, served on ships in the South China Sea or humped the highlands, did not receive the welcome home chants that my current brothers and sisters in the military are presented.
In previous decades, the communication to the returning vets was poor. Stories of returning incidents all feel like something from an Oliver Stone film: Spit on, baby killer cursings, fights, and worse, snubbing – sometimes by the veteran’s own family.
My father spoke of how when he came home, his friends and family never talked about the war. It was yesterday’s news; and if anyone actually served, then the service was ignored, forgotten, replaced with questions of today, as in, “Where do you work now, after being gone so long?” The war never happened.
In 1973 communication toward a Vietnam veteran was painfully absent.
Today’s soldier or airman returns through airports with fire trucks blasting water as if to symbolize a clean return. Lines of volunteers, ranging from veterans, to elder ladies and men, to thankful American
citizens, await aircraft arrivals at the Atlanta and Dallas Fort Worth International Airports. Governors and distinguished visitors strive to pay homage to the warriors returning back to their community, all well-deserved.
Today the thanks is clearly communicated.
During the first weekend in June, Wyoming thanked its Vietnam veterans 50 years after that war started at the reunion. It was a great opportunity for veterans from Cheyenne to Sheridan, Evanston to Jackson, to gather to remember and share with brothers whose youth was shaped by the jungles of Southeast Asia.
It also gave those of us who serve now, who have been on the receiving end of hundreds of handshakes and hugs, to offer our appreciation for the selfless service of the Vietnam generation. I shook
the hands vigorously of each veteran who approached me to thank me for my service. The exchange went like this in most cases: “Thank you for your service,” the veteran would say, and my reply was, “Thank you for your service and laying the foundation. Welcome home.”
Each time, the feeling was great. I was in a position to offer thanks to others for their service. It felt even greater knowing it was my father’s generation, a group of young men and women flown across the Pacific to wage a war for their country, and then to return to a world that had moved on.
They were shunned. Now, the shunning ends.
Fifty years later, we clearly communicated, “Thank you and welcome home.”
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.21.2016 15:25 |
| Story ID: | 186762 |
| Location: | CASPER, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Comm check: Wyoming Vietnam veterans reunion commentary, by MAJ Thomas Blackburn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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