Viet vets, how were you treated.

[Griff Murphey]

It is unfortunate that geography meant that everyone arrived home on the West Coast and were subjected to its cesspool. Bad enough to go to war, then to be treated like that.

I never saw anything like that in Texas. In Fort Worth when I was in high school we sent care packages to units in Viet Nam. I was in college in San Antonio 67-71 and the boot medics from Fort Sam and the Lackland kids were all over downtown tourist attractions and treated with full respect.

[Vern Humphrey]

I experienced that crap in Batesville, Arkansas in 1969. I was wounded, with my arm in a sling and all my ribs broken.

[ridgerunner]

Penny for your thoughts, if you sneezed, Vern.

[Griff Murphey]

I sincerely regret hearing of these incidents of gross disrespect and ignorance by the low information civilians of the time. A friend of mine who was an Aussie RAAF Wing Commander at GD in Ft. Worth, on the F-111 program in the early-mid 70's, comes over here with his wife nearly every year. Had dinner with him last year (now a retired 2 star AVM) and he made an interesting statement about those times..."America was tearing itself apart..." Maybe that describes the far reaching negative results of the war which I think you could argue are causing many of our problems today.

For what it's worth, I can only imagine how crazy that was for you returning combat vets and painful, physically and mentally.

[IditarodJoe]

Three words come to mind . . . "lyndon" "baines" "johnson". (What kind of person would name their kid "Lyndon" anyway? )

[Vern Humphrey]

Penny for your thoughts, if you sneezed, Vern.

Ouch!

I stayed on after I was wounded the first time -- we had no replacement company commanders. So when I was wounded the second time, they didn't even ask.

But the Brigade Commander would come out every day in his helicopter to see how I was doing.

I was a Mech Company Commander. You know how a man with his arm in a sling and his ribs broken gets down off his APC to greet the Brigade Commander? OUCH!

[ridgerunner]

Very carefully.
I also had scar tissue form over where my ribs were busted, 40 some odd years ago, that had to be removed last year, because of cancer. I think it was more of a pre cancer issue.

[Vern Humphrey]

Don't scare me like that!!

[Griff Murphey]

Since IditarodJoe brought up LBJ I can't resist recounting his Silver Star award. Basically he rode a B-26 Marader out of New Guinea on a raid against Rabaul. It was actually a pretty hairy mission as his plane was attacked by Saburo Sakai, a top JNAF ace, fortunately for LBJ Sakai broke off his attack. So LBJ got the Silver Star, the B-26 aircrew got nothing. LBJ proudly wore that Silver Star on his lapel ever after. Here endeth the story. Take a ride, get a medal.

[Clark Howard]

The worst thing about those who abused us in the old days is that they are now abusing us in Washington DC. Regards, Clark