You know me...I have another question...

[SuperScout]

Most of us came home to an artificial silence that had been built by watching the evening news, listening to the daily distortions of the MSM, and really not knowing what to say. We buried the lack of acknowledge with much of our other baggage, and it continued to reverberate internally with each bad movie, every untrue political speech, and each opportunist trying to make himself taller my standing on the corpses of our brothers.

The catalytic event for many of us was watching the genuine "Welcome Home" parades after our warriors won Gulf War I. The saw the deluge of yellow ribbons, red/white and blue bunting, proudly waving flags, and smartly stepping marching bands as the crowds along the sidelines clapped appreciatively for our conquering heroes.

All of a sudden, the rush of buried emotions, blended with current patriotic fervor well up inside of us, and the collective ghosts of our individual pasts screamed, "WHERE'S MY PARADE? WHAT ABOUT US?"

And that's why we continue to greet one another with a warm, heart-felt WELCOME HOME, BROTHER!

[splummer]

No one spit or said anything mean, but when they found out I had been in Vietnam they just kind of stayed away and avoided me. It was a big let down because I came home proud of what all of us had done. I learned real fast not to mention Vietnam. One of my neibors did thank me about 5 years ago after he found out .

[39mto39g]

Taylor.
Most people that watched TV back then had no idea about what went on in Vietnam. Most people that were in Vietnam had no idea what was going on in VN, in fact most people in VN have never seen an enemy soldier.
I never went to any parade for the Iraq guys, I never went to any of the STUPID half ash attempt to give VN vets a welcome home, I don't talk about what I did in VN , except for hear. The guys at the station I worked at would get me to talk about it every once in awhile, usually when some VN show was on, and then I would just say, "Thats dumb"
I didn't care what people thought that have no idea on what they are talking about, felt.
I went to the WALL in DC at 5:30 in the morning so no one would be there, to visit friends.
VN vets are no different than any other group of people in the feelings they have and the opinions they express.
So to answer your question,"were there any good moments?"
Maybe the day that Frank Fuller (went to VN with him) and I stepped on the airplane to go home.

Ron