Roy Remembers How Liberals & Democrats Spat on Him After JFK's Vietnam War.

http://www.teenink.com/Past/9900/Apr...ietnamVet.html

Did people look at you differently?

Some did. I had some medals and I was proud as hell of my wings, my
combat badge and medals I don't even know why I got. I was proud to
wear my uniform. I came home in 1968, walked out of the plane all
proud, with my shined boots and everything. They started spitting on
me. That really pissed me off. They were yelling at me, calling me
names, spitting at me ... I couldn't understand why. I was only 20
years old. I didn't understand why we were over there. I thought it
was the right thing to do, but I felt something different when I came
home. I didn't expect anyone to spit at me, but they did. I held my
temper, I let them spit, and I walked in front of them proud as a
peacock. I could look in the mirror and say I did what I wanted to do.

I didn't spit on the people who went to Canada, I'd shake their hand
when they came home, so why do people spit on me? That was the worst
part, coming home ... I almost went back. I wanted to get back on the
plane and come back when everything had calmed down, or just go back
and die.

At the time it didn't make sense and 30 years later it still doesn't
make any sense. People should never be treated that way. I wasn't the
only one, it was everyone who came back. Guys came back with no arms,
no legs, one arm, one leg ... they got treated like dirt. I was lucky,
I came back in one piece. The guys who didn't are the ones I feel
sorry for.

I want nothing from this country; it's the guys who sacrificed a whole
lot and didn't get anything in return, that's what bothers me. We
should give them all a hundred thousand dollars. I don't want one damn
dime. A hundred thousand dollars won't buy a guy's arm back, or both
arms, or his feet back, or his legs back, but do something for him!

And the women, they weren't in combat units, they were nurses and
tended to shot-up people. A lot of women went crazy over that. It was
the nurses who had to bring them back to life. They saw more people
die on the tables than we saw in the field. We didn't know if they
were dead or alive, we threw them on the helicopters and sent them
back.

It's the medics, the nurses and everyone who tried to save somebody
and watched them die right in front of them. They got the people who
were half-dead, three-quarters dead, and tried to save them. They went
through hell! A lot of people don't realize that. What have they done
for these people? The same thing they did for the disabled people -
nothing! That's why some are drunks and dope addicts. They drink to
forget ... they take dope to forget.