COMING HOME CONTINUED: I once read a moving story written by a young man who had served in Afghanistan. He said I remember wanting everyone around me to watch those TV Specials about the War with me. I purposely would seek out programs that were similiar to the one I had been in. And I was constantly finagaling a way for someone close to me to sit and watch them. And I did all this in the hope that one of them would really take an interest and understand what I had been through and appreciate it. And then, ask me If I am okay now???? In spite of realizing or expressing their joy in being alive, in their good health, their families and friendships, many young men like this one appeared to be very anxious. Understandably so. Their bodies were now physically within the relative safety and loving families, yet their minds were still surrounded by danger in the WarZone. One of my favorite nephews, Gene Fritts, who served nobly in Vietnam, once recounted to my husband and me about an incident, when after he had been back home for a while and he was sleeping soundly, his wife, Donna, slipped up beside the bed very quietly and tapped him on the shoulder in order to wake him . His first trained instinct was to immediately slam her up against the wall! I felt so bad about it he said over and over and I have apologized to her time and again but it was the way we had been trained in order survive over there.; to protect ourselves from the enemy. While the returning Veterans of World War II had been seen as Heroes, having rid the World of Axis Power, in contrast, the Veterans of Vietnam returned to a politically voliatle situation because they had been soldiers of an unpopular War. An increase in depression, fatigue and shell shock plagued these men. Small wonder, the amount of disrespect and shunning these men encountered. The confusion had to have been enormous, knowing that they had gone to serve their Country when asked, and that they certainly deserved the same respect as any others from all Wars. I recently read in a magazine where one elderly gentleman said it had taken him some 40 years trying to forget , not only the horrors he saw in Vietnam, but also the cruel & rude treatment he got from his own people in the United States. Now, that is sad.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:48:47 +0000
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