Quote:
Originally Posted by 87Lowrider
This was a great idea for a thread! I remember when I came home from the first Gulf War in '91, we went to a Denny's near Norton Air Force Base in CA. I was just off the plane, still in uniform, with my wife, 6 yr old and 3 yr old daughters. We walked in and everyone in the restaurant simultaneously stood up and cheered. Several people approached me and thanked me, shook my hand and it was very genuine and heart felt. It was one of the best feelings in the world.
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I remember when I returned from Viet Nam. We flew into SEATAC in the dead of winter (Jan something). The airport had been closed because of bad weather, but because of some "technical difficulty" thing the pilot was reluctant to tell us, they opened it and scraped snow off of the runway for us to land. We got on the ground fine with no problems, but couldn't taxi to the ramp because of the snow (I didn't think it snowed that much in Seattle
They finally got some busses out there for us and took us to the terminal. As we were getting off of the bus we heard this ruckus near the terminal. It was our welcoming committee! At first it was shouts and insults, name calling, etc., things you wouldn't want your wife or children to hear. A little later, it erupted into some bottle and can throwing. They didn't hit any of us but it wasn't for lack of trying. I guess the point in me telling you all this is to show how people's attitudes have changed over the years. They said on the news tonight that the support for the war in Iraq is at about the same level as it was for Viet Nam in the later years of that war. Yet, people now are still extremely supportive of the troops (as they should be) and continue to hold them in high esteem. Do I still hold a grudge for the way we were treated when we returned? Yes, I'm sorry to say, I still do, but I'm getting over it as the years pass. If, however, the insults and indignities that we went through as we returned played some small part in the change of attitudes that people now have for our armed forces, then it was damn well worth it. God bless our men and women in uniform.
