Vietnam Veterans Day

Annual tradition of Vietnam Veterans Day.

I was on a short trip recently and chatted with an employee of a place who was a Vietnam Veteran. After seeing a card of mine that showed I was a veteran he mentioned his time serving in Vietnam and brought up how many folks treated those coming home from Vietnam. I tried my best to convey to him that what they went through led to changes in the way veterans were treated coming home, and that I was treated much better coming home from my own deployments thanks to Vietnam veterans leading the way to make sure what they went through never happened again.

Many of you have seen my posts about this in previous years, but for those who haven’t:

When I returned from my deployments in 2004 and 2007, the largest group of people greeting us at the gates of airports were Vietnam veterans. I still get chills thinking about it, and in the years since I have not been able to come up with the words to describe what it’s like to receive that welcome from a group of people who were treated far worse. It absolutely speaks of selfless service to your country and its veterans.

For the vast, vast, vast majority of combat veterans, bringing up their service and thanking them creates an awkward situation because gratitude is something they were never looking for. So my recommendation is that if you see someone wearing a Vietnam veteran hat, shirt, etc. just tell them a short “thank you for your service” and throw in a “welcome home” because they may have never heard it. If you have a friend, coworker, etc. who’s mentioned before that they have a parent, grandparent, neighbor, etc. who served in Vietnam, maybe tell them “hey, please let them know I sincerely appreciate what they did for our country.”

If I run around doing things like that for the rest of my life it’ll still never be enough, but it’s what we can all do to make sure they’re still thought of, respected, and appreciated.

Thanks for your service and the post Dan! My uncle and quite a few cabin friends are Vietnam Vets, and the way they were treated still haunts/pisses them off to this day. And rightfully so imo, it’s one of the worst blackmarks on our society the last 50 years. Hopefully everyone realizes now, it’s ok to hate the war, but still love the soldier. Welcome home to all of our vets!!

Welcome Home to All our Vets and Thank You. I have had the pleasure of caring for many Veterans and have enjoyed hearing their stories over the years. Often all they want is someone to listen and thats it is just to listen. Thanks Again!!

when I came home on leave they told us to not wear our uniforms because of all the unrest… we didn’t brag to much about being in the service for a few years..

Semper Fi!!!

Thank you all for your service. My dad was a proud Vietnam Veteran until he died two years ago. We are all honored that he was buried with military funeral honors in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. Taps played, the US flag was presented to our mother, and a rifle detail saluted him. It was an amazingly moving experience.

Yes, thank you to all veterans. My grandpa was a WW2 veteran but there are no Vietnam veterans in my family. My dad was drafted twice for Vietnam but disqualified both times due to medical reasons.

Thank you for the post Dan. Welcome home to my Brothers and Sisters! I served in the First Cav as a UH-1 helicopter pilot in 1970-71 at Bien Hoa Army Base. It was very rewarding supporting my heroes, the grunts. We always did our best to get them where they needed to go and get them resupplied. Sometimes we delivered hot food, sodas, ice and even ice cream. Thanksgiving and Christmas were very special days delivering hot food to those on patrol wherever possible. I would do it again in a heartbeat.