Need stories of veterans' abuse (vanity)

vanity | self

[groanup]

My daughter's history teacher made this claim in class last week: "I don't believe Viet Nam veterans were mistreated when they came back from the war. I don' know any who were."

Would any and all Viet Nam vets please tell us how you were treated when you came back from Nam? I'll print out this thread and give it to the teacher.

[groanup]

Sorry for the vanity but I would like to prove this guy wrong.

[groanup]

ping

[Brad’s Gramma]

Bump this!!!!

[groanup]

Thaks BG. I'm thinking this may get on just a few last nerves.

[Gordongekko909]

Looking for news articles...

[MNJohnnie]

A Sniper's Journey : The Truth About the Man Behind the Rifle
By Douglas Valentine.
Story by a Vietnam vet details his experience in an Airport when he came home. So please have your "History Teacher" explain why I should believe them and NOT this Vet?

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

BUMP!

[Gordongekko909]

Yeah, then there's The Long Gray Line.

[Spktyr]

Check out _Homecoming_, by Bob Greene: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399133860/americanherit-20/103-0601318-8195066

Also: http://www.americanheritage.com/blog/200511_8_71.shtml

Yes, it did happen. My father was fortunately not a recipient of this treatment, but one of the other men deplaning with him *was*.

Also, if it didn't happen, why do so many hippies talk about how they showed "The Man" by spitting/urinating/throwing feces at "The Man's Stooges", i.e. soldiers? (Notice that they're busily editing history now, but they were crowing about it all through the 90s.)

[MineralMan]

There's no question that such abuse happened, but it did not happen to everyone. In most cases, servicemen came back from overseas and were welcomed home by family and friends.

While I did not serve in Vietnam, I was in the USAF during the late '60s. I always traveled in uniform, since I got a good break on tickets. Nobody ever insulted me or called me any names. Often, I got a free drink in the airport bar and some nice hugs from pretty girls.

Still, such incidents did happen from time to time, usually in large cities.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

I returned from the Republic of Vietnam in 1969.

1. I was refused a job because the interviewer said that many of us were drug addicts.

2. I was called a "baby-killer" by a girl I met at a party once she learned I was a vet.

3. I was ignored by high school friends who were into that anti-war movement. Some of my "friends" thought that I might go psycho and didn't like having me around.

Most nights in the 70's TV programs like Magnum PI often had as the plot some Vietnam Vet going psycho and killing someone. Most people then thought most of us were crazy thanks to Hollywierd.

[tertiary01]

He has a type of personality disorder and you won't change his mind. I'll bet he doesn't believe most of history because he didn't personally experience it. A complaint by you and your parents is in order and get into another class.

[ElkGroveDan]

"I don't believe Viet Nam veterans were mistreated when they came back from the war. I don' know any who were."

I don't have stories for you, but I would like to say that," I don't believe terrorists were mistreated in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. I don't know any who were."

[Gordongekko909]

Let's see: we've got a vet named Tim Beebe who claims to have been spat on.

[tertiary01]

OOps sorry, you are the parent. Get you child out of that class and file a complaint.

[mountainlyons]

I was in a bar and went up to a cute girl and she said "I do not speak to short hairs" I have had people deny that I was ever in Viet Nam. My brother was landing in Anchorage to go home and Jane Fonda said to the group to "go AWOL" "don't go" so I assume she was saying don't to home. John Kerry cost a lot of fellow vets jobs by calling us baby killers and war criminals. John Kerry you are a liar!

[Explorer24]

Xavier HS in NYC, where Scalia went, had to make changes to their military program as a result of how students were being treated by anti war trash. "In the 1970s, service in the JROTC unit became optional, which had been mandatory from the unit's inception in the late 19th century." (wikipedia). It became optional b/c so many students were attacked they: a) had to stop requiring students to wear their uniforms to and fro school, and b) pressure put on the school. This is what I was told when I attened.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'm hoping it does. Those people who deny what's happened NEED to be ticked off.

[Cagey]

I served in the Army from 1968 to 1972 and there is no doubt that many Soldiers, Sailors and Marines returning from VietNam were treated poorly compared to the way servicemen returning after WWII were treated. In reality, the veterans of the Korean War were ignored too.

However, I believe many of the stories regarding servicemen being "spit on" are grossly exaggerated. Most of the "war protesters" of that era wouldn't have the guts to spit on a serviceman. Servicemen were called "Baby Killers" after the Mai Lai incident, but hardly ever to their face.

I found that many of us were treated pretty good during those war years. While stationed at Fort Devens, MA, I'd make the trip into Boston and visit Boston Garden and get into Hockey games for free when dressed in uniform. On one occasion, a flight attendant moved my seat up to first class because I was in uniform and in an arm cast.

There were no parades and most men who served during those years did their duty and returned to civilian life, got married and had families.

Like the stories of VietNam veterans coming home and turning into malcontented freaks and druggies, most of the stories about those same veterans being treated like crap are over sold.

I served those four years here in the States and only speak for myself and what I saw going on with the men I served with and those who were in combat in VietNam. Two men I knew gave their lives there and what does bother me more than anything is that I feel they gave their lives for nothing accomplished.

[MNJohnnie]

I don't believe terrorists were mistreated in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. I don't know any who were

Brilliant. Mega, Mega Dittos!