Spitting on Vietnam Soldiers

So it never happened. Yeah right.

So it was wrong for me to oppose the war without blaming the soldiers? The vast majority of those who opposed the war felt that the government was to blame for the mess they got us into, not the soldiers. Unfortunately, a minority of EXTREMISTS took it out on the soldiers, and sometimes even spat on them.

And how would I go about doing that?

Why stop there? Let's charge a $100 fine to anyone who voted for Bush, Nixon or Johnson. (In Truman's case we'll just say that too much time has passed since Korea.) Plus a $50 fine for voting for any senator or representative who voted in support of those wars. Too ridiculous? So is your suggestion!

 

As I said in another post(somewhere in this maze of sites)- I believe that the whole thing about us getting spit at, is greatly exaggerated
Speaking just for myself ,it never ever happened. Speaking for those who I know & still keep in touch with (thru reunions & shit) that whole spitting story seems like it was a few isolated incidents that the media ran wild with. > Hollywood was next.

I personally can say - although treated with indifference , most folks, young & old, hippies & yippies, realized the situation & at the very least were quietly respectful. There were probably a few immature disrespectful jack-asses- but I certainly think they were the exception not the rule
The anger most felt wasnt towards the American people, but at the very machine that sent us 1/2 a world away- no-one wanted a fuckin parade but a VA that gave a shit wouldve been nice!
peace&respect
JJack

 

Like Syntax said... They killed innocent women and children. But they are right that the government started it. Yet still.......

 

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Peaceful River
I see your 13 yrs old. Please don't believe what the media & Hollywood would like you to believe. In the 13 months I was there , I didn't see everything that happened (of course) , but I can tell you that 99.9 percent of the guys there weren't killing innocents.

Of course while "Rolling thunder",and other assorted bombing campaigns sure did its share of unnecessary killing ,the average guy wasn't some bug eyed killer looking to wipe out innocent peasant villages. You can point to a few highly publicized incidents but it really hurts the average vet to be thought of as a uncaring ,loose cannon, who just destroyed anything who was in their way. There are no real Rambos my young friend, but their are plenty of vets with tortured minds out there, from my war and the fiasso in Iraq-

Just be careful on what you choose to believe
best regards,
JJack

 

i webt to vietnam when i was 19.i enlisted after high school.i wasn't all that caught up in the politics of it.i wanted the adventure.i did'nt care what others thought or what they did.i got to travel all over the country and world for free.i liked the idea of facing danger.in combat i learned alot about living for others and helping others while still trying to keep myself alive too.the protesters were fine with me.i don't think anyone went over with the intention of killing innocent people but terrible things did happen.

 

This is the thread that just keeps on giving, isn't it?

Bottom line: Yes spitting on our returning troops did happen; but it was rare.

Its urban legend mostly, trust me.

Started in large-part by the pro-war right in an attempt to portray Hippies as uncaring, and especially unpatriotic.

Perhaps a few might wonder why spitting on returning troops was rare after three + years and nearly 950 pages.

The reason is very simple really.

If you just think about it for a moment.

Its because the vast majority of the returning troops landed on secure military bases, and not civilian airports.

Why?

Because they were specially chartered military flights that originated from a combat zone.

Personally, I landed in Ft. Ord in early May of 1971.

So now, does it make sense to anyone here that the U.S. military would allow protesters to enter a secure military base in order to protest the war and spit on returning vets? Especially considering the level of anti-war protests that were going on around the country?

Of course not.

Medic. 1st/7th Cav. 1st Cavalry Div. Ahn-Khe RVN.

So.....Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed
But join with me, each jovial blade
Come, drink and sing and lend your aid
To help me with the chorus:

Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run
We are the boys no man dares dun
If he regards a whole skin.

Our hearts so stout have got no fame
For soon 'tis known from whence we came
Where'er we go they fear the name
Of Garryowen in glory.

 

i was a medic too 2-47 9th infantry division.i was only in country 2-3 weeks.in 1969

 

Welcome home.

Did you listen to Sgt. Peppers on Sunday nights after chow on AFVN?

 

thanks you too of course.and season's greetings.i can't say i remember that.but like i said 2 1/2 weeks i was gone.medivaced to okinawa and then fitzsimmons army hospital in denver.very minor wounds but that was soon after they started withdrawing troops so i never went back.i do remember hearing music though .and i remember watching the moon landing when i was on okinawa.

 

Ugh this started up again?? I thought it died months ago

 

I haven't read any of this thread at all.
Just this statement made me not want to, you suddenly can become a hippy?
Man alive.

 

I was in the army in 1968 and got spit on by a young hippie when I was going home on leave during Christmas (he also gave me the finger). It was the strangest thing that ever happened to me. I was only 17 years old and just finished jump school and was sent home on leave for the holidays. I wore my army dress uniform and felt really proud of myself. When I got to Boston, I had no money to get to my mother's apartment in Braintree, so I walked from the Greyhound station to the subway. Along the way, an apparent pimp, asked me if I wanted a girl. I could'nt believe it! This was my hometown (Boston). I wasn't some military guy in the Combat Zone looking for pussy. I was going home on leave! I snuck onto the subway and it seemed that the passengers were all giving me the evil eye. I guess I understood that the majority of folks were against the war in Viet Nam and I represented what they hated. I didn't feel that way. I wasn't a baby-killer and was just serving my country. I was a hippie at heart (in my mind). When I got to Quincy Square to catch a bus to my mother's apartment, that's when the young hippie spit on me and gave me the finger. It was then that I decided that being proud to be "airborne" was a complete waste of time. From there, I lost faith in my country and the military. I'll never forget the look of anger on that kid's face as he gave me the finger. I wasn't even angry at the kid, just ashamed.

 

thanks spud.you know i made a long trip to get home that same year for christmas,trudged through some deep snow to make it.otherwise i didn't have problems.i think the blowhards that had tough things to say about soldiers and vets have been quieted down recently by our humanity.maybe not.

 

A lot of the younguns didn't understand what the 'Movement' was really about and were shortsighted in their judgment. Some that dressed the hippie way were not always hippie in their hearts/minds and were not receiving the right training, so to speak, in the art of hippieness.

I don't recall anyone we knew Spud that hated the soldiers themselves but more the governments involvement in it. I think we had several ex military that joined the movement when they came back. They had the draft back then and hippies were forced to enlist as well as every guy age 18.

Like I said, some did not understand as we brought in the new age and change was on the horizon. The Movement had it's warriors too, it was just a different war. It wasn't only the soldiers that got spat upon, we hippies had our share of spit too.

Hate never solves anything and is mostly ignorance and a lack of education/communication that causes conflict.

sh

 

I keep feeling compelled to comment when this thread comes back around. When I came home I was - looked at strangely, patted on the back, ignored, & generally treated OK.

No one spit at me , although it seemed liked a few people wanted too.

I think that for the most part, the whole spitting thing is greatly exaggerated.
I am sure it happened , I just don't think it was the normal reaction .

Sure I would have loved a little more recognition a little more gratitude. However, my problem was/is more with the VA than the American people .
The other thing - American atrocities were rare & also exaggerated. Sure there were innocent tragedies ,but we didn't have the precise weaponry we have today. Most tragedies happened from the air. Not from a crazy patrol going in and wiping out a village. I always hated the labels that Hollywood and the certain media types used for the "troubled vietnam vet".

I was young, I was drafted, I tried to stay alive- that's all
Joined the peace movement shortly after I got back
I never even bought my kid a water pistol while he was growing up
JJack
spec4/170AHC Bikinis
755Medical attachment :hat:
A fucking lifetime ago

 

This should have ended this argument. Sure the 60's are over, but I got friends in iraq and afganistan. I am friendly with whoever is kind to me, and that includes the soldiers on the right.

 

they are ppl , yes it was a war as i said in my earlier post on this , but they need love , they and those who have been killed are yah sad , but u know what , all of us would try to deffend our familys if some tryed to hurt us , that is what was going on then . learn to love that is all those men of vietnam wanted but htey wre drafted had no say beuse of the goverment . Peace is key not fighting over a war faught back then , i mean yes we are fighting now , but it is still something that is going to keep happening if we cant learn to look past the diffence , that is what is going to kill all of us in the end

 

man this thread just keeps going.i think the original question has been answered fully but i guess maybe it's a good discussion to keep open,,,,,,,,,besiges people tell me i'm alwest quiet until i toke and then they can't get me to shut the hell up so here goes.i went over in the spring of 69.i lived through 1 firefight......light one up ore whatever cause here goes.i was the medic i got hit by shrapnel from an rpg round i got knocked off a apc i was sleeping on.right away i start hearing yells of help so i crawl around in the mud getting over to them.i just let myself go cause i figure the mud is stopping the bleeding.i can't see too good becausae i'm bleeding from my face and it's night time too.we were getting hit pretty hard i figure because there's more explo9sions,machine gun fire and automatic weapons..........i get to everyone though.,medevac comes in us wounded are taken out.sent into the saigon field hosp.i think we all came back to the states because the u.s. had begun gradual withdrawl of troops.besides the doctor's borders dictated me back to the states.i had minor wounds as it turnedf out.but my time in country was over.all right with me.i was glasd to go back to the states.i still have scars as we all do one way or another.we all did what we did back in those days.it affected our whole country.man what a trip those days were thogh.but i'm proud to have served and help out.if you look back on sports and everything too it was ouite a time in history blah blah zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

I don't know why this thread keeps coming back.. Short and sweet.. My number was up I was gonna get drafted so I joined the Air Force to avoid going to the Army.. Mistake.. I wound up being a door gunner on a helicopter.. Was there from 1971 till 1972.. Did what I had to do to get out alive. Went home.. I never got spit on.. On the other hand nobody said welcome home and thaks for what you did either.. Meh. guess thats the way it was back then.. The end.

Peace

 

I come from a military family. Dad, grandfather, uncles, aunts, cousins. If my brother wasn't physically unable to serve, he'd probably have joined also. I almost joined. Every person in my family that served did not do so to be a hero, or wanting to shoot a weapon. They did it to go to school, or provide for their family. My grandfather was career airforce and served in Vietnam. He did not want to be there, even though he did chose to join the service. He wanted to be with his children. He came from a town that joining the military was your only way out. The only chance at good job. Education here is a joke. He did what he had to. He never talked about what happened there, to his children or grandchildren, so I don't know what he saw or experienced. But if it was something he was proud of, he sure didn't act like it. That man is my hero. Not because he served in vietnam, but because of what he did when he came home. He was a gentle man, not some baby killing monster. My grandfather was the sole parent to his two little girls. He didn't have the luxury of saying, no I won't go. He did what he had to for his family. You don't know those soldiers stories, you don't know why they chose to fight rather than run. But they are not monsters to be hated. My grandfather chose to stay and raise his two girls after their mother decided not to, and then adopted three other children whose father had run out. Does that sound like a murderer. He is my hero and deserves respect. It's those that feel they must bash soldiers that scare me. Who are they serving? All their doing is finding some reason to lash out. They don't care about any cause, except the cause of destruction. And if you're 20-years-old and talking shit about those soldiers, who the hell do you think you are? You did not have to face that. You don't know what those boys had to go through. Some say that they would pick prison over going to war, what if you had a family that needed you? At least if you served, they would be taken care of. If you went to prison, what would happen to them? Orphanages, group homes. It's easy to say that when you are not actually faced with the choice and you only have yourself to think about. Think before you speak.