No Homecoming
by A brief story of the Viet Nam Vets and the way they were treated. Ending with the way they are treated now.
It was the early sixties the beginning of the Hippie revolution. Everyone was talking “love not hate” “Peace not war”. Our government was getting us involved in another war. This war was half way around the world in South
Viet Nam. We were to help South Viet Nam fight off the approaching Viet Cong. It sounded alright on paper and
wars always seemed to help a political career.
This war was fought differently then any other war the U.S. has ever gotten into. We were never allowed to take
the offensive, we were never allowed to attack, we were in a defensive mode and we were told to stay that way.
You can’t win a war that way and in the mid Seventies we lost the war. The Viet Cong over ran everything and chased us out.
Enough about the war. That was not what I wanted to talk about. I want to talk about the boys that were sent
over there and became men while they were still in their teens. I also want to talk about the nurses and the doctors
that worked around the clock patching up our soldiers.
Viet Nam is mostly jungle so to help our soldiers fight, our government came up with something called Agent
Orange,which when dropped from airplanes would destroy all the foliage and make it easier to find the enemy.
Agent Orange also destroyed people, our own people as well as the enemy. The symptoms very anywhere from
nerve damage to cancer. It also affects the children of those affected. Many children were born with birth defects
linked to Agent Orange.
Alcohol and illegal drugs were plentiful in Viet Nam so many of the soldiers came home hooked. As in most wars there were atrocities that many would love to forget but can’t. A lot of these atrocities occurred when officers,
seeking to make a name for themselves, would over step their authority and order soldiers to do things they
should not.
After the soldier spent his or her time in Viet Nam you would think they would come home to a heroes welcome.
most came home to no welcome at all. The protesters were not getting anywhere with the government so they
decided to try a new tactic. They went after the soldier. They would tell the soldiers they were wrong for being
there and encourage them to go AWOL. This really destroyed the moral of our soldiers. When the soldiers came home they were all but forgotten. In fact the soldiers were made to feel like the enemy. Some people would even spit on or hit the soldiers. a few got beaten to death just because they were wearing their uniforms.
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