My wife’s younger brother was engaged before he went to Nam.
She married, someone else, and let my wife’s sibling know just before he left Nam on his 2 feet to come home.
On his way from Travis AFB to SFO he was spit on.
The pilot on his return home from SFO advised the guys to wear civilian clothes and shoes. They contacted his brother who lived about 2 hours away from where they landed.
His bro brought a brown bag of civilian clothes and a pair of sneakers the returnee had left at home. The new veteran left his travel uniform on the floor in the brown paper bag.
He met his future wife about 2 weeks later at home, and they had a great marriage until she had a terminal cancer, decades later..
God bless your brother-in-law and so many who went through similar things. I, for one, am grateful for his service.
I’m glad he met and married a good woman and at least had several years together with her before that evil thief cancer got her. (It got my youngest sister in 2020.)