I’ll never forget my trip home. I was lucky enough to fly back with a buddy of mine name Casey S. We were both pretty excited about coming home but anxious and apprehensive about what to expect. We landed at San Francisco International Airport. After getting our baggage, our welcoming party were a group of Hare Krishna’s asking us for donation. The second group was a drug dealer asking us if we wanted to buy a “lid” (bag of marijuana). We asked the guy how he knew that we might be interested. His response was “Man, we can spot you guys coming back from Nam a mile away!”. Needless to say, we bought a bag, rented a car and headed for the nearest motel and smoked until we settled down and accept reality that there was not going to be any “Johnny Comes Marching Home” welcome back.
The other horrible experience was our drive to Texas. We met so many animosity along the way. Getting bad looks in restaurants and where ever we stopped by, people trying to run us off the road, etc. Our looks of short hair really gave us away. I finally got my first “Welcome Back” parade at the Vietnam Veteran Welcome Back parade at Los Angeles, California back in 1987. On the way home, around 1 and half hour away, that’s when the trigger of PTSD kicked in, after hiding it for 17 years.
Honolulu, HI