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Vietnam veterans gaining back pride – and medals
Union Tribune ^ | 04Aug05 | Eric Tucker

Posted on 08/07/2005 10:12:15 AM PDT by USMC Veteran

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Still in his Army greens, William Tallerdy barely had both feet back on American soil when a man came up to him, demanding to know if he was returning from Vietnam. Then, right there in the airport, the heckler punched the veteran in the face. Tallerdy exploded. The police and his relatives had to restrain him.

Soon after, he threw out his war ribbons. That was 1967.

"I was always proud of my military service," said Tallerdy, who is now 57 and lives in Cheyenne, Wyo. "It was just that people made me feel like scum."

Tallerdy wasn't alone. Many returning Vietnam veterans, faced with a hostile public, threw out their medals. Some, like former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, even did it in public as an act of protest. Others simply tossed them in drawers and foot lockers – if out of sight, perhaps out of mind.

Four decades and a nation friendlier to the military, though, have helped a number of veterans come to terms with their service. Now, they regard their medals with a renewed sense of pride – and are replacing them or dusting them off.

"We made peace with the former enemy," said Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. "And we made peace with a former enemy that had defeated us, which is extremely hard to do."

Tallerdy requested his Purple Heart medal a few years ago. Today, the replacement is in a cabinet alongside eagle figurines, dog tags and other war memorabilia.

The Pentagon doesn't keep statistics on replacement medals, according to spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke. The anecdotal evidence from the veterans themselves, however, suggests the numbers are high.

While Tallerdy displays his Purple Heart in his living room, William Muns shows off his honors – among them the Good Conduct and Vietnam service medals – on the wall of his office in Beaver County, Pa., where he is the county's director of veterans affairs.

Muns had stashed his medals and his uniform inside a foot locker when he came home in January 1968. He wanted to move on. He never talked about the war, not even with his family.

Then, five years ago, his wife brought his medals out and created a shadow box for him.

"'You were there. You were exposed. You were put in harm's way,'" Muns recalled her telling him.

Many who served in Vietnam, Muns said, are in the process of "coming out" as the passage of time has changed feelings about that war.

"Today we're showing ourselves because we want those men that are active right now to know that they are welcome and they are being supported," Muns said.

Honored though he was, John Wallace packed up his medals because he just didn't want to relive that moment when he helped men out of a downed helicopter before a B-52 strike.

That changed in 1989 when Wallace began doing advocacy work for veterans.

"The doors started opening up in my mind," Wallace said. "I was feeling better, I was relating more to my brothers in arms than I was to the civilians."

Now, he's president of the Vietnam Veterans of America state council in Maine and keeps his medals, which include the Bronze Star and Air Medal, on the wall in his computer room.

"They see that and it sort of makes them feel better," Wallace said of younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. "They can ask about how I got them, I can explain to them how I got them. It makes them feel better because what I went through was maybe worse than what they went through."

Tallerdy traveled to Branson, Mo., last month for the first Operation Homecoming USA, a weeklong tribute to Vietnam veterans. The experience moved him profoundly.

"I think now," he said, "it's almost become prestigious to say that you're a Vietnam veteran."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: medals; neverforget; pride; vietnamveterans
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To: USMC Veteran

bump


21 posted on 08/07/2005 10:43:06 AM PDT by wildcatf4f3 (whats wrong with a draft?)
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To: tet68

I'll agree with your qualified remark. THIS TIME, none of that behavior will be tolerated within my eyesight. The protesting scum that traveled to Crawford, Texas to dishonor their sons and OUR country need to be run off. Yes, I still believe strongly in "LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!"

But they won't do either, there are like all the other Alec Baldwin scum that talk big, deliver nothing.


22 posted on 08/07/2005 10:45:33 AM PDT by brushcop (We lift up our military serving in harm's way and pray for total victory and a safe return.)
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To: USMC Veteran

I want to thank you for your service to this country. I am already thanking the current war's vets when they are home on leave when I am given the opportunity. I don't want them to think for a moment that they are forgotten or that their sacrifice is for nothing. I want them to know that most Americans are supporting them inspite of what the media is trying to throw out to them.


23 posted on 08/07/2005 10:46:37 AM PDT by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: USMC Veteran
How a person who betrayed the military and his country can be elected to the Senate amazes me.

... it pains me still that an actual draft dodger was elected president - TWICE.

24 posted on 08/07/2005 10:57:25 AM PDT by bimbo
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To: EagleUSA
The reality is that VN vets have NOTHING to NOT be proud of. They served their country well. Where the real problem lies is with the POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON, the libs who created VN, and then did NOT LET THE MILITARY FIGHT THE WAR. Those are the criminals, the bad boys, the people who SHOULD BE ASHAMED of what they did to VN vets...not the troops who did their dirty work, dying to allow them to play politcal chess with Viet Nam.

Sounds like some of the Politico's today, denigrate the US Military and then cry because it doesn't work right.

Politicians maybe it should be time to practice decimation.

25 posted on 08/07/2005 10:57:36 AM PDT by dts32041 (Shinkichi: Massuer, did you see that? Zatôichi: I don't see much)
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To: USMC Veteran

Ordered mine last week, should be here soon. Bought the display case last week also.


26 posted on 08/07/2005 11:00:59 AM PDT by afnamvet (Jet noise...The Sound of Freedom™)
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To: bimbo; All
... it pains me still that an actual draft dodger was elected president - TWICE.

Care to provide proof, not liberal rhetoric?

27 posted on 08/07/2005 11:02:19 AM PDT by USMC Veteran ("Life is tough. Life is tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
Roger your last!
This article doesn't pass the smell test...

I don't know a single warrior who "lost his pride"...
The only thing most of us lost was some beloved brothers, and respect for many of the leftists and cowardly bastards in America....

We never lost respect for ourselves or what we had accomplished.. Most folks don't realize - that U.S. forces NEVER lost a major engagement over the entire involvement in Vietnam..

The American Leftists, Leftist Media and weak kneed politicians lost the opportunity to free a nation, and wastefully sacrificed nearly 60,000 American lives and many times that number in horribly disfigured bodies and minds tormented by nightmares that wouldn't sleep.

Semper Fi
28 posted on 08/07/2005 11:04:14 AM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: USMC Veteran

I already do... 'cause he's my Dad.


29 posted on 08/07/2005 11:04:28 AM PDT by Maigrey (Prayer Warrior... just a ping away!)
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To: USMC Veteran
... it pains me still that an actual draft dodger was elected president - TWICE.

Care to provide proof, not liberal rhetoric?

I'm not sure but I think that reference was to clinton, not GWB.

30 posted on 08/07/2005 11:05:38 AM PDT by Bob
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To: USMC Veteran

I assumed it was Clinton also.


31 posted on 08/07/2005 11:11:24 AM PDT by somemoreequalthanothers
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To: tet68
what we didn't have was the nations respect, now we do.(at least 51% anyway

I belive you have the respect of far more than 51% of the nation.

32 posted on 08/07/2005 11:13:01 AM PDT by somemoreequalthanothers
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To: USMC Veteran


.


NEVER FORGET


Just for the LOVE of it...



See: 'ALOHA RONNIE' Freeper Home Page

Hit: 'posted by ALOHA RONNIE' -Here

HIt: 'Links' -There








MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts


NEVER FORGET

.


33 posted on 08/07/2005 11:13:44 AM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: Cobra64
I forgot to add, he HATED LBJ.

So do I. LBJ was the one who caused us to loose.

34 posted on 08/07/2005 11:15:11 AM PDT by elbucko
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To: Bob; somemoreequalthanothers; bimbo

If it was, then I apologize. I'm just used to seeing those comments aimed at GWB.


35 posted on 08/07/2005 11:18:44 AM PDT by USMC Veteran ("Life is tough. Life is tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne)
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To: USMC Veteran
Still in his Army greens, William Tallerdy barely had both feet back on American soil when a man came up to him, demanding to know if he was returning from Vietnam. Then, right there in the airport, the heckler punched the veteran in the face.

I remember those days.

You know, it is important to document these stories. Lately, the lefties have started saying that these things NEVER HAPPENED to Viet Nam vets.

36 posted on 08/07/2005 11:20:00 AM PDT by Fido969 ("The story is true" - Dan Rather)
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To: USMC Veteran
Many returning Vietnam veterans, faced with a hostile public, threw out their medals. Some, like former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, even did it in public as an act of protest.

Kerry claims those weren't his medals. Yet, he received replacement medals and certificates in 1985 signed by SECNAV Lehman. Kerry didn't earn any of his three PHs and made up the rest. The MSM continues to spin for this traitor.

37 posted on 08/07/2005 11:22:16 AM PDT by kabar
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To: kabar

Lehman. He was the bastard that fired Adm. Rickover. When I hear his name I just want to scream.


38 posted on 08/07/2005 11:23:48 AM PDT by burzum
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To: burzum
After sixty-four years of service, Rickover was forced to retire from the Navy as a full admiral by President Reagan on January 19, 1982. I guess RR must have listened to Lehman.
39 posted on 08/07/2005 11:32:36 AM PDT by kabar
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To: USMC Veteran
If it was, then I apologize. I'm just used to seeing those comments aimed at GWB.

My speculation was based solely on bimbo's 1999 'born on' date.

It never ceases to amaze me that the very people who accuse GWB of 'dodging the draft' by serving in the Reserves have no problem at all with their own real draft-dodger who loathed the military. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

BTW, I 'dodged the draft' by joining the Navy and ended up serving for 9 years. The year 1966 wasn't a real good one to flunk out of college. :=)

40 posted on 08/07/2005 11:35:25 AM PDT by Bob
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