I was the shoulder for a couple of military guys I knew in Iraq who received that news - via email in this day and age. I’ve never been a physical retaliation person, but I wanted to b*tch-slap the selfish women who sent those messages to their husbands while they were deployed.
I’m sorry for all of the troops in Vietnam who got those letters. So cruel and self-absorbed of those women back home to do that.
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..