Watching all the joyous family videos of returning vets brings tears to my eyes. Yes, the emotion of the moment for these families is very heartwarming, but for me they are painful.
My father did 3 tours of Vietnam with the Big Red 1 out of Fort Riley Kansas and came home under cover.
There were no community supported surprises and no welcome home bands. No streets lined with "Welcome Home!" signs and flags waving in their honor. What I remember most was that we attended funerals and wakes weekly.
By the time I was 10 years old, I had attended more funerals and Masses for fallen soldiers that were friends and brothers in arms to my father, and the fathers of my friends than I have attended in the years since. There were no honor guards protecting us from the ridicule and no thank you's at the airports.
The hardest part for me is that those men, who fought and died and those that came home to the ridicule, for the most part had been drafted, and yet they did what their country asked of them with courage, honor and dignity.
The young men and women of today volunteered, they had a choice. That they are honored today goes to show that those that suffered unreasonably in the past and their loved ones remember and refuse to let others suffer in the same way.
For all those Vietnam vets that ride the honor guard and say thank you in the airports with tears in your eyes I REMEMBER! I thank you for your service and hope that one day your heartaches and hurts of the wrongs done to you can heal and you will get the honor and peace you deserve.
My father is at peace now as we lost him in 2012, but I know he is standing first in line to welcome home those that pay the ultimate price at the gates of Heaven as he should have been welcomed home here on earth!
Florence, KS