I appolgize for thi is rant, where were they when we came home?

[DeepseekerADS]

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainme...ning-from-combat-keep-from-committing-suicide

Well, bless his heart...

He wasn't even born when I came home.

No body even cared when I came home - didn't want me to date their daughters, as I was affected / infected.

Suicide? Considered that a number of times but never did it.

Bless his heart......

 

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[Unclebuck257]

Deep, I couldn't get your link to come up but the general gist of what you said it unfortunately too damn true. I got out in August of 67 after 4 years active duty in the Air Force and my buddy got out a month later after 4 years active duty in the Army. After we got out, for about the first 6 months or so, my buddy and I had several " meetings of the mind" with a number of loud mouthed, anti war hippies in various places and we couldn't believe the hate those idiots had for us and our uniforms. It slowed down for us after that because both of us got married and had other responsibilities to worry more about. Those friggin' hippies had nothing to do but smoke weed and do other drugs and goof off. By that I mean we basically no longer put ourselves in situations around those aholes. My brother got out in 70 after 4 years active duty and was in a college class with his very shy girlfriend when the professor, a draft dodging hippie with a pony tail got really mouthy and out of line with his girlfriend over her refusing to repeat in class some vulgar words in a book the class had read. As this professor pushed harder, my brother told him to back off, The professor made some comment about my brothers military service and walked up to my brother and dared him to do anything. My brother promptly accommodated him and cold conked the SOB right there in class. No charges were ever filed and the college apologized to my brother and his girlfriend.

As a result of the hate and outright distain felt towards all of us vets by many in the public I just kind of forgot about all that hippie BS and went on about my business and life. It wasn't until 9/11 and afterwards and how the public began treating our vets with the honor they deserve that I again started talking about being a veteran again. Hell, it wasn't until that time that I started to wear a veterans hat out in public for the first time again. I never used the VA Medical system until 2010 either.

I am just so thankful that the majority of the American public got their heads out of their butts and started giving vets the honor and thanks they deserve after the Iraq War started , even though it was kind of a delayed thank you for us vets from Nam. Hey deep, at least the public FINALLY realized their mistake with us and tried to make up for it the best they could now. Ive even had some apologize to me for the way we were treated back then. However, many of those die hard hippies have turned into something under a different name today and I still cannot stand them and they cannot stand me either. The way most of them think, I consider it an honor not to be like them or around those fools!!

Later Deep and Welcome Home Brother!

 

[Terry Soloman]

A lot of us are very bitter about being spat on, called "Corporate," or "Baby" killers, and worse. We were shunned, "canceled" in today's vernacular. We MUST check our bitterness however, when it comes to people, even clueless ones, trying to do something to help today's veterans. Many combat veterans from our era of service in Vietnam stuck steel in their mouths and pulled the trigger. Back then, nobody cared. Some actually saw it as a good thing - one less baby killer to deal with.

Let's try and identify programs that actually help veterans, and support them. At the same time we need to call out programs that are publicity stunts or money grabbing scams. Just my 2-cents. God Bless ALL veterans!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I will be brutally honest to everyone here, and to myself. It took me over 5 years to get my act together. Honestly, my grandfather had passed, and I was called into the Red Cross, and they asked me if I wanted to go home. I still had 4 months to go on my second tour, and I was heavily addicted to heroin - sometimes you just gotta be honest. In Nha Trang, a gram of 97% pure +/- heroin was $2.00. Before I went in I was Mom's Apple Pie. By the end of my first tour I had seen enough of this world. When you are nothing, and you have nothing left, anything you can find to give you peace is perfectly acceptable. I'd seen all the national disgust at drug addiction, but by that time nothing else mattered but finding just a moment of peace.

So, I came home addicted, had serious issues cold turkey. But finally I could breathe again without vomiting repeatedly and going through my body's cleansing.

I have never told anyone about this except those who have already passed, but my brother.... I'm regret influencing him on my return - he was a clean Christian man.

But he's still here, coming up shortly, and we lost almost all our friends over the years to their passing's. Jim and I are still alive, and we live mostly clean (I have a beer in front of me), and I haven't seen hard drugs in over 40 years.

I think mostly, it is those who have nothing to live for, who become drug addicted....

 

[Terry Soloman]

Good On You Brother Deepseeker! Sending love your way

 

[XLV]

DeepseekerADS thanks for the thread .....i wish i could give my answer Buts its viewed as political ....And as time goes on its going to get worse the next big one i only feel sorry for anyone that serves

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Will the next "big one" be against US...?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Will the next "big one" be against US...?

I don't know my friend.... Paranoia serves me well, and to date I just can't see this world getting any better....

 

[Unclebuck257]

Deep, Thank God Brother that you were able to get off that poison eventually. It speaks to God's Grace and your inner strength that you were able to do that. Please don't misunderstand when I said that my buddy and I were bitter for 6 months and then moved on. What I guess I should have said was that with both of us being married and me with a son born the same day that I was discharged, we made a conscious decision that taking care of our families was more important than fighting and then going to jail over what we considered those hippies...TRASH!! Oh we had many additional clashes over the following next few years with the anti war protesters but we tried to be smarter about it then when we first got out and just busted them in the mouth.

As far as the brother in here who said that we needed to eliminate our bitterness over those idiots, let me say that I am not as bitter any longer as I was BUT I will never forget! Forgetting is hard to do because they have just changed their names from hippies to snow flakes and the name change is all that has changed. They are still spineless, gutless people who haven't got the intestinal fortitude to serve and in times of national trouble, like 9/11, and will run to their safe spaces rather than a enlistment office or Canada rather than serving in the military. They still like their marching in protests too. That's how I feel and I've earned the right to feel that way even if some vets don't agree with me. They have earned the right, in my opinion, to feel the way they do too.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

The reason for my strong dislike, to put it mildly, for the left, is they are the same people that dissed us when we came home. They're older now, like us, but are primarily the people leading the Democratic party, and leftist politics. And, they're still dissing us. Calling us deplorables, and bible thumpers.
Jim

 

[RTR]

Well, in all fairness I have to say this about that (the topic).
When we went to Nam we ALL knew it was for 365 days.
Fast forward today...The/our kids in the US military spend how many tours in the sand box ? Some more than 7 tours.They spend a few months there .Return home and shipped back & forth over & over again . What I would like to see is a return of "some kind" of draft system. Elevating their burden,and at the same time showing younger generations that "Freedom ain't Free." !!!

 

[RTR]

One thing for sure they were the Best of times...And the Worst of times...We all had our calender's to scratch off the days.This is some of mine . One year's time we had,54 rocket attacks,52 mortar attacks,3 sapper attacks....And one very lost Bengal Tiger on the base.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Wow Man!!! You still got some of your stuff

House fire in '73 destroyed all of mine, even my uniform......

 

[RTR]

Wow Man!!! You still got some of your stuff

House fire in '73 destroyed all of mine, even my uniform......

Yeah,just came across it a few days ago cleaning out junk

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Well, in all fairness I have to say this about that (the topic).
When we went to Nam we ALL knew it was for 365 days.
Fast forward today...The/our kids in the US military spend how many tours in the sand box ? Some more than 7 tours.They spend a few months there .Return home and shipped back & forth over & over again . What I would like to see is a return of "some kind" of draft system. Elevating their burden,and at the same time showing younger generations that "Freedom ain't Free." !!!

I've been watching that too. It's an all volunteer army any more, and since the draft was ended, these poor people are getting the butt end of everything. I pray for them.

 

[Mekong Mike]

I've been roaming around Vietnam for over 12 years. Fifty thousand American ex-pats live here now and many of them vets from the war.
When I first got to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City, I met an old vet who told me Vietnam is like quick sand and if you stay too long you can't get out.
I will tell you this.... many old Vietnamese people remember you guys and very much appreciate what you tried to do for them. I have spoken with so many of them over the years.

I'm writing this on a very rainy night in Saigon near the river. 1:38 AM.
Goodnight

 

[XLV]

REBEL ...after the US starts it it will ,,,AND may be even from within the US its time for a change a new system been needed since the 90s let freedom ring give it a rebel yell

 

[XLV]

Mekong after a couple months you get caught in that quick sand and after a few years your trapped in it ....I totally agree with that saying... heard that one from Harley ex chopper pilot his trapped for good this time

 

[DeepseekerADS]

During my divorce years I thought many times about returning, even investigated it for a bit. But everyday changes us, and those thoughts slipped away...

 

[RTR]

I've been roaming around Vietnam for over 12 years. Fifty thousand American ex-pats live here now and many of them vets from the war.
When I first got to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City, I met an old vet who told me Vietnam is like quick sand and if you stay too long you can't get out.
I will tell you this.... many old Vietnamese people remember you guys and very much appreciate what you tried to do for them. I have spoken with so many of them over the years.

I'm writing this on a very rainy night in Saigon near the river. 1:38 AM.
Goodnight

Wow man.Your in Saigon ? ...Wow...How is the old town ? Better/worse ? Peace