Posted on 10/16/2025 1:53:10 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Twenty-one-year-old Steven A. Wowwk arrived as an infantryman in the Army’s First Cavalry Division in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam in early January 1969 to fight in an escalating and increasingly unwinnable war. By June, Wowwk had been wounded twice—the second time seriously—and was sent back to the United States for treatment at Boston’s Chelsea Naval Hospital.
It was after returning to the U.S. and while en route to the hospital that Wowwk first encountered hostility as a veteran.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
I was 1st Div infantry 67-68 and also intelligence later. We had the war won. Westmoreland allowed Tet buildup to continue the war. I know, I saw the troop movement. G2 Intel Lai Khe, boards and wondered why we were allowing it.
I was mustered out in San Francisco in September 1970. A soldier, also separating, and I wore our uniforms several blocks on toward a bus station and, though there many people on the street and sidewalk, we got no jeers or catcalls and no greetings, either. I thought that odd given the warnings from the First sgt. back in Okinawa. On the bus and at home I never got the bad acting that I had expected. I know it was an anomaly and I was glad for it.
Do you have any books or news sources on that 3 million South Vietnamese killed? 2 million Cambodians were killed in the “Killing Fields” (in 1974?).
We were double-timing on one road on campus, four platoons each four squads abreast, and had been issued M-14s for the daily drill. A hippy type walked out into the road and made sure our formation would have to split a little to go around him. All went well until the 4th platoon surrounded him, and he decided to kick one of the guys. That hippy got creamed from both sides with M14 butts, and was left in a heap when we passed.
The company commander called a halt and went back to see the guy groaning in the road. He said, "What in the hell is this all about?". Fourth platoon was mine (Duck Butts), so I answered, "He kicked Devers at the head of third squad, sir. It was all over before I could draw breath." After a few seconds he said, "I bet that was an education".
Then off we went, singing a grand old cadence.
I was a voice intercept op on C-47s after the spring offensive that followed and during which most of the rest of the VC and the northerners were wiped out or skipped across into Cambodia. The rest of the time what I got was pages and pages number groups. During the VC wipeout I got some clear speech from units wherein all the qualified radio ops were dead and the surviving troops were panicking. We won it with those two fights, Tet and the following Spring offensive. Then DC ordered the operation toned down, I guess to be fair to the poor overwhelmed communists we allowed them to regroup and rearm instead of pushing against the last of them in the South.
Because filthy vermin commie SOB’s. That’s why.
I enlisted. There was something going on over there and I wanted to see it. I was wasting my time and my daddy’s money in Junior College so I went.
FA
That hippy got creamed from both sides with M14 butts, and was left in a heap when we passed.
FO
He was in a helicopter division and one year, their copter was flying over and protecting Bob Hope.
Miss my buddy.
I hope to be able to contribute to that.
Because of that lying POS Uncle Walter and the rest of the leftwing media.
Similar for when my brother-in-law came back in 65. They flew into Seattle late at night and did not leave the airport through the main concourse
He also said that measures were taken by the government to favor Vietnam vets in that job applications would ask if you were a VN vet. He never checked "yes" as he feared discrimination.
Why were Vietnam vets treated so poorly?
Simple. Because draft dodgers felt better about themselves showing yellow by demonizing men who honorably served down range.
The almost funny thing is, then many of these same poltroons went on to lionize the “Greatest Generation,” (Band of Brothers, et al) although they didn’t trust their elders until they were safely past the age of 30.
It was a democrat war, first Kennedy with his Special Forces and advisors, then that skunk Johnson, Silver Star winner, lol—wanting to be like his hero, FDR—turned it into a jackpot.
This confused the McGovern democrat perpetual students, so they called it “Nixon’s War” ... then managed to dump a guy who won 49 states using their MSM, and gutless senate Republicans. Keyword: guilt
Observe their responses to this post.
Because liberals are a**holes.
My neighbor was a corpsman.
55 years later, he was day hiking on Mt Rainier and collapsed from dehydration.
By chance, 2 USAF corpsmen from McChord were on the mountain training. They came to his aid.
His wife told them that he too had been a corpsman in Vietnam. When the young AF guys heard this, they saluted and then treated him like he was a movie star as they packed him down the mountain to the ranger station. Total awe for him!
He told his wife later that their care and respect took a huge weight off his back he did not realise he had been carrying.
Two words... demo crats.
When I meet an old guy wearing a Nam Vet hat, I offer to shake their hand and say Welcome Home and thank you for your service. A lot of them didn’t get a Welcome Home then.
Not disputing his account, but I know may vets, myself included, who were never hassled.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.