We have talk the issue to death, but it still comes back.  How dare the Viet Nam Veterans feel that they were ”slighted” by our own country? I have sat back and tried not to get into these “conversations.”  You fine gentlemen will talk about how no one can understand a submariner except another submariner. Could it be that no one can understand a Viet Nam Veteran except another Viet Nam Veteran?

Well I’m going to put my two cents into this: I will try to speak only as a Veteran.

You must remember the times. We were so full of patriotism. We loved our country. We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and we could pray in school.  Our fathers, for the most part, lived in the house and mom stayed home.  We did not burn the Flag and did not go to Canada. We stood in line and said, yes we would go. We were 18-23 year old “men”.  We did the right “thing.”

I went to Viet Nam because I truly felt I could help our country, not Viet Nam.  I stayed “there” for over two years. I saw all the horrors that war has to offer. All the atrocities that one can do to another. For the most part we still tried to keep our faith in right and wrong. As with everything, your time comes, and you leave. I felt mixed emotions. I knew that some of my friends that I left behind would not be coming “home.”  But I did come home. I was not involved in the politics. All I wanted to do was buy a new Harley. 

You cannot believe the feeling when the “Freedom Bird” landed on US soil. At first there was just silence, then roars of cheers and laughter. I remember as if it were yesterday. We were at Hickam Air Force Base.  We left the plane, climbed on to a bus, and headed downtown. (Billeting was filled.) As we left the Main Gate at Hickam, there was a shower of rocks, beer cans, tomatoes, and anything else that one could pickup and throw.  “They” had signs saying horrible things about us that we did not understand. What did “we” do wrong? All I wanted was to go home. Tears were coming down my cheeks, I looked at the others and they were too.  Why did we feel this way?  What was going on?  Dad where are you? And I looked so forward to coming home.

by Gary Walker