Asking for your experences with the the anti-war groups during the Vietnam War.

My father was drafted after flunking out of college.(68)

IN.

He fought. 2 PH’s and a BS. He never spoke about it.

Graduated with a BA upon return, then an MS. 4.0.

Funny how that works.

Ya know, I remember wearing the POW/MIA Bracelets. I remember the Images, including the hideous spitting and jeering by the *hippies* and *peaceniks* back in the day. I was only 10~12 years old, but I remember, and it shaped my life. I was absolutely disgusted by how our boys were treated when they came home, more so as I grew up. I make a point to thank every single veteran for their service. I know many people who do the same, and all share the same stories. Vietnam Vets reduced to tears by a simple acknowledgement of their service. Full~blown smiles and stories of faith and courage.
Stay away from these Lefty Freaks. They do not live in our world, nor will they ever. Thank you all for your Service, and God Bless and Keep You <3

Funny. My Dad will be glad to hear that he wasn’t really spit on in SFO by a hippie piece of shit.

Fucking oxygen thieves…

I got back in April 1969 just after Tet which was my 19th birthday. I spent 3 years in the Army, volunteered, even volunteered for Vietnam because Germany duty was nothing but shining boots, KP and guard duty with an unloaded weapon. I spent the final 9 months at Ft. Lewis pushing troops which I did enjoy working with the trainees. We were told upfront to avoid uniforms off post. Of course back then it was only class A off post unless you were traveling to and from the base. It seemed to me that no one spoke about Vietnam except Rather and Crokite. When I got out, I worked construction, no one talked about being a vet or being in a combat zone. It was like no one really give a shit. My folks did not ask about it, I just kept it to myself. Until 2000, thanks to the internet a bunch of guys found each other and started a Regimental association. Still the only time I talk about it is with the guys that were there with the exception if my kids growing up pissed and moaned about how hard they had to work, I would tell them what it was like to be on ambush for days at a time, and how shitty the heat and dirt could be. No one spit on me, I would have probably kicked the hell out of them if they didn’t get me first. I avoided Seattle, it was full of hippies. I still cringe when I see one of the shitheads!

I was “there” in 67-68 (i.e. TET) with the 1/101 and 3/82nd (ABN). I left the Army after DEROS from VN in Dec ’68 because…who knows? 6 months later I had enough of civilians and civilian companies who were more chicken shit in procedures than the Green Machine. I recall a Savings Bond drive and coercion that would make a SGM blush to get 100%. Whilst I had a great civilian career in front of me, I came back in. Sure glad I did. But luck played a lot.

I never encountered the hate then but I was in Jacksonville Fla, not exactly a hippie mecca. A few years later the Army sent me to U of Fla for an MBA. I attended classes and dressed like everyone else (but I did not go native). I also volunteered to assist the ROTC detachment in some training and one day I did that and then came to my MBA classes in Class A Greens (albeit not as medal’ed out as some of the winners here). I did not wear bloused Cochrans so I was Leg in appearance. My fellow students were shocked that I was a Soldier since I had been so “normal” in their eyes for the past months. It was an awakening. Here was a guy just like them with a family and not a psycho. I was reasonably intelligent (or at least created that illusion). Their actions over the next few days was interesting. Lot’s of sidebar conversations. I probably helped recruiting. But, U of F was not a lib hot bed then.

Re #11…a PS: Did have great pleasure in working at the Pentagon in the 70’s when the hippies would attempt to block the entrances. I used the North Parking entrance by the POAC where they would all lay down on the bridge. The Pentagon Police would just smile and tell us to just walk over them. We did and that was sweet! Hippies ended up with some sore bones.

@9

Cacti!

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And I really like psychedelic shirts and John Lennon.

I returned to the states (SF), November, 1969, from Japan (wounded in August, spent three months at 106th Gen. Hosp., Yokohama). We were herded from the plane along a boarded up fence line to buffer us from the protestors behind another fence line. There was a lot of yelling and a few thumps could be heard as something hit the opposite side of the boards.

Fast forward 36 years and I am returning from Iraq (DFW), February, 2005. Two Fire Truck’s water cannons are shooting streams of water over our plane as we taxi to the terminal. The greeting we receive is a 180 compared to the greeting in returning from Vietnam. As I thought of the two homecomings, not ashamed to say, my walk from the plane to my family and friends was a teary one.

I never got spit on, but – – -,

While dressed in my Class “A” uniform, and waiting to cross the street in downtown Portland, Oregon, someone in a passing car threw a beer bottle at me.

It was a bit of a shock, for I had just returned from Viet Nam, and was so proud to be wearing my Army Class “A” uniform with my Bronze Star ribbon on my chest, and the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagle” patch on my right shoulder.

But, people seemed to hate me and my uniform.

Another time, I was walking along a road in California, and a car tried to run me down.

And, yet another time, I was hitch-hiking back to my post at Hunter Liggett Military Reservation, and was picked up by a young couple, man and wife, who told me how stupid it was for me to be in the Army and having gone to Viet Nam.

When I was on leave from Viet Nam, I was very surprised to have a Viet Nam veteran in my church tell me how stupid it was for me to be returning to Viet Nam.

Actually, at the time I was drafted into the Army (I wasn’t allowed to enlist, so I had to volunteer for the Draft), a whole lot of guys were doing anything and everything they possibly could to AVOID military service.

Back then, it was kind of tough with everybody in the whole world constantly telling me over and over again about how I was stupid for being in the Army, and how I was going to be killed in Viet Nam.

Not only that, but I was in the Army, and in Viet Nam, at a time when troop morale was at its lowest point, so I was constantly surrounded by guys with negative attitudes, racial conflicts, and rampant drug use.

So, under those conditions, it was hard being a gung ho soldier, and believing in what you were doing.

Came back from RVN, had a set of winter greens sewn by a SF civilian who thought it’d be funny to make me look like a clown.

I missed Vietnam. I graduated HS in 1973 and joined the ROTC at Utah State University same year. In ’74, the unit was holding an award ceremony for a couple members who were former enlisted who HAD been in Vietnam.

The formation was being held on the quad and we were almost surrounded by the anti-war hate mongers, urged on by the Young Socialists Alliance. These folks kept pushing in on us and then suddenly started throwing shit. I git hit by a balloon filled with red paint, blood, and God knows what else. Ruined my uniform and broke my glasses.

I had to have my eyes flushed out, and the Doc at the ER I went to (the hospital in Logan) gave me a script for antibiotics just to be on the safe side.

I HATE those bastards to this day. Every damned one of them. It’s true what I heard back then, that “Hell hath no fury like a pacifist.”

A lot has been written about San Francisco due to people arriving at Travis, then onto SFO for other destinations. I saw numerous incidents while living there.

I was at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco in 1970. We had season tickets. It was the 49ers home field then. During the season when the National Anthem was played, I could see scattered about, people refusing to stand… just sat during the anthem. This happened at every game.

On the Marina Green Park, the hippies would fly these super high altitude kites with wire. They did this to fuck up the approach onto the Presidio’s Crissy Field. It drove my “buddy” nuts on checkrides. A few years later I learned the Army banned fixed wing aircraft and made it rotary only for Crissy Field.

At a movie theater (I think it was the Balboa in the Richmond District) I went to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The prices were posted on the old black waffle board with the pin-on white lettering(not sure of the exact prices) Children $1.00, Adults $2.25, Military in Uniform $3.50. I will NEVER forget that sign.

The hippies were going to storm the Presidio for a protest. It was an open post, and it never materialized. I guess they were too fucked up on where to meet? It made the papers. Mayor Alioto quashed that one!

I posted this on their site. Left my email address too.

In 1974 I was traveling through the Seattle airport in uniform. I went outside to smoke. At the doorway out of the secure area a crowd of anti-war people was waiting along both sides of the rail. They shouted “baby killer” and spit on me. Don’t say it didn’t happen because it did. Some time after that we received orders that we didn’t have to travel in uniform. Active duty people and veterans held up their right hand and swore to protect and defend the Constitution — they agreed to give their life to serve the rest of us. If you don’t appreciate and value that I do not know how you can look at yourself in the mirror.

@28.

Impressive restraint.

I hear you though, I listen to that BS all the time in more public forums.

These are the same turds who will be the first in line complaining if the Government cuts financial aid, grant money, free medical care, etc.

The irony is that I keep an open mind and usually look at things both ways before making a decision. Much unlike their decision making process.

They hate the military but yet refuse to get a job or be a contributor to society.

Turds.

I just now remembered something.

When I was in Washington, D.C., a wounded Iraq veteran in a wheelchair was downtown watching a parade, or a festival, or something – – – I can’t remember exactly what the occasion was.

But, anyway, a war protester, probably from the group, CODE PINK, actually did spit on that wounded veteran sitting in a wheelchair!

I know about it because it was front page news, and all over the Internet.

So, check the archives and maybe you can find the original news report.

At the time, I think that wounded veteran was probably still being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Shit, I was called names, told how only “stupid” people enlist, although not spit on.

And this was in the 90’s.

It is still happening to a lesser extent. A buddy of mine got refused service at a local dentist office. The secretary asked him for his insurance card. He handed her his Military ID. She told him in front of a crowded waiting room “we refuse service to anyone in the Military”. He told me that half of the waiting room got up and left. I did not witness this first hand, but I had the pleasure of listening to him call the main office to lodge his complaint and threaten to sue.