Welcome Home
Today is Vietnam Veterans Day, a better group of people who deserve a day doesn’t exist. If thousands hadn’t stayed in the service and trained my generation of soldiers, we would have been lost. And they had no reason to stay in the service. the country had pretty much turned their back on the veterans of that war in the years following the end of combat in Vietnam. They hid their internal scars, some ashamed to admit in public that they’d been to that war. Even the Veterans Service organizations turned their back on them.
I’ve heard that the dedication of the Vietnam memorial was the point at which Vietnam Veterans felt like they’d finally been welcomed home, but I disagree.
I was at the first Gathering of Eagles back in March 2007, and I think that was when they’d felt welcomed again for the first time as they got to stand firm against the hippie vermin across the street from the Lincoln Memorial. they declared that what had happened to them wouldn’t happen to this generation. I’d never seen such camaraderie among veterans, so many smiles, so much backslapping and hugging.
One more time they heard their nation call and they answered once again. Because of their experience after their war, other generations wont have to experience what they did, if we never forget.
Welcome home, brothers.
I’m proud that one of my several hometowns joined in the spirit of today;
Category: Veterans Issues
Thanks again Jonn.
Well, if it was the day that vietnam vets stood together to say it would never happen again, then it’s ironic that the first GOE was the day that I was spit by a group of GOE folks right outside The Wall.
To my older Brother’s and Sister’s in arms, WELCOME HOME!
GOE was a very fine group organized by one of the finest there are. GOE countered the anti-war groups around the country. Our Country again voted to send our men and women to war and led by one party in congress begin the same process (turning against the Troops) that Vietnam Vets faced upon return. GOE said no you don’t. Not again.
HM2 FNF-SW Ret #2: What were you doing there? If you weren’t with GoE then I’ll assume you were just a tourist and extend an apology from the GoE staff. I can do that.
If, on the other hand, you were with ANSWER all bets are off. There is a certain justice there that I can appreciate having been spit at while in uniform.
58,000 reasons to never forget
91B20
2/505
3rd. bgd.
82nd. Abn.
Some of my friends are riding down to Charlotte this weekend, wish I didn’t have another commitment.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/29/3136997/thousands-to-pay-tribute-to-vietnam.html
Welcome Home!
Welcome Home!!!!
That was a cold and damp day, a ST Paddy’s day that I won’t forget either. For the first time in my life, I saw ANSWER and other assorted assmaggots actually look afraid, because THEY were the ones outnumbered, and THEY finally had someone stand up to their sorry asses and say NEVER AGAIN!
I was cold, and in a huge amount of pain. I hurt all over that day, but I have never felt so much love, so much compassion, from other veterans as I felt that day. Veterans just talking to each other, swapping stories, and realizing that we were not alone anymore.
I was part of a whole busload that drove straight down from Maine, and afterward, drove all night through to get home, but I don’t regret a single minute of that time.
It’s probably about time that we all did it again.
And like Zero, if some hippie scum got spit on that day, I sure as hell didn’t see it, but it’s damned sure poetic justice, as I got spit, blood, paint and God only knows what else thrown on me and I’ll beat happy to beat the living hell out of any leftist bastard that says that shit didn’t happen. It happened to me and friends of mine and it forever ensured that I wouldn’t play fair with any leftist ever again.
Great post Jonn. I was there at the first GOE also. Rode up from Huntsville with a group of vets from that era. Had a very valuable time. I never did active duty but after meetiing them I regret it. And Zero is right – if the guy wasn’t with GOE , then he was with ANSWER – it was too cold for tourists.
I distinctly recall one of the speakers summarizing the Vietnam war and the fact that o battle was ever lost. I have used that argument – successfully – to counter some of the info that my grandkids teachers try to insult history with. The teachers don’t like me for it and I’m happy about that. But they still try to teach them the MSM version. My kids don’t buy it.
Welcome home Brothers.
Jonn,
Your comments are much appreciated. I was fortunate to fight with some of the greatest soldiers on earth: 3/11 ACR 1967-1968.
Contrary to what some say, (a) we did not lose, (b) it was a WAR not a damn conflict.
Proud father of two SF and one 11B, sons.
Jonn
Thank you.
Part of my email signature is
“never again will one generation of Veterans abandon another” (VVA)
John 5 (VN 69/70)
Excellent story. I never commented on here before but follow regularly. I have thought of the appreciation I have for the Vietnam vets who trained me when I came in and what they instilled in me and expected of me. This story made me remember that again. Thanks for posting and keep up the great work you do here on the site!
Crusty logistics NCO (retired)
At the various events I attended and worked, I feel extremely privileged to have met so damn many wonderful patriotic civilians and veterans from the Vietnam War Era. bman, you need to correct your figures to about 58,284 men and women that died serving the USA during Vietnam.
@ HM2 FNF-SW Ret #2- I’m with Zero on this….However, if I’d seen anyone spit on you at any event, it would have been taken care of right then. But at the Wall? I’ll take exception to your claim….
Sounds like something one of those commie pukes would do to someone they didn’t realize was really on their side…
John, That GOE event was primo. Cold as shit, but primo. It was then that I found TAH…This weekend in Charlotte for any other folks–at the Speedway, another welcome home with PG, AL and more.
Thanks for the great post! And welcome home to those of you I don’t know and who were not thanked, proper. Duty, honor, country.
Don’t forget too it was the same kind of anti maggots that defaced the Wall by throwing some kind of acid over it a few months later of that same year. You know the logic-they didn’t like the then current war so they went after the Vietnam memorial .
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=639
I work across the street and saw the damage myself (and if I was able to have caught them in the act, I would have likely have been…a news item). Anyway, they continued thier dumbassedness chemically as whatever concoction they brewed up didn’t result in permmanent scarring, despite thier best, dumbass efforts.
From a grateful former Marine, welcome home Vietnam folks. Thank you so very much.
C-
To all Vietnam Vets I wish to personally thank you. What you must have endured both in and out of theatre, I can only imagine.
You were an inspiration to many of us who have followed in your footsteps. Names like Roy Benevedez, Rocky Versece, Franklin Miller, and Fred Zabitosky exemplify what REAL soldiers (not the Oxygen Thieving PX Rangers you bust here)do in the face of adversity.
This country owes you a great debt, and I cannot say it enough, ‘Welcome Home, Soldier….’
“H-Minus, All The Way!”