Welcome Home
By Juan Flores
After facing life threatening situations overseas in the Vietnam War, soldiers claim that their worst experiences were when they’d come home to angered civilians. The protestors would spit on soldiers and the bases would be surrounded in protestors. The soldiers were told when arriving that they had to change into their civilian clothes if they had any. And if they didn’t, they had to buy some before they could leave. Veterans would be confronted by people at airports. Protestors would call them ‘baby killers’ and other names. Veterans were upset when they arrived because they saw that all the bad things going on in the war were making the news and not the good things that the soldiers were doing. Some soldiers would even spare their rations of food to some of the children there, but there was no publicity to any of the good deeds taking place overseas, only the bad things.
Homecoming soldiers would find peace in North Dakota and most other Midwestern areas. It was where more citizens were appreciative of their service. They were treated more like heroes by the Midwestern society, so it was more common for soldiers to travel to Midwestern states on their arrival back to the “real world”. The veterans would be very upset that their homecoming was very different compared to the homecoming of soldiers of other wars.
Other war homecomings would have parades and the soldiers would be thanked by people for weeks for their service. Vietnam veterans feel their service to this country was very important and the citizens of their time didn’t believe the war was for a good reason. American soldiers were constantly under attack in Vietnam, just ready to return to the ‘real world’ and when the soldiers did, they weren’t even accepted there by their fellow Americans.
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