As a Vietnam-era
veteran, the closest that I got to the war was in the spring of 1975.
My ship, the guided missile destroyer USS Parsons, was on what I
call a “pleasure cruise” from our 7th Fleet home port in Japan to
Sydney, Australia. On the way to visit the Aussies, we stopped for a
brief visit in Guam in early June.
Just a few weeks
before, the North and Viet Cong armies entered Saigon and captured
the city. Americans watched on TV as U.S. military helicopters
ferried civilians from airfields and the embassy roof top to the
carrier USS Midway and her escort ships floating in the South China
Sea. Although Parsons was part of the Midway's normal group, we
remained in Japan in April that year. I guess, at least one of the
ships in the 7th Fleet had to remain near Japan. That ship was the
Parsons. So, like folks back in the states, I watched on TV as
helicopters landed on Midway's decks until they over flowed and crew
members started pushing them over board to make room for additional
choppers arriving from Saigon.
By the time we arrived
on a detour from Sydney, Guam was an island covered with tents.
Thousands of Vietnamese refugees were on the island. If you have
ever been to Guam, there isn't much there. It is not like there are
a large number of extra hotels for guests. Tents were the temporary
home for the Vietnamese refugees on the island. To this day, I can
picture the tents everywhere. I can also picture the Vietnamese
children, elderly, and women. The image of one woman in particular
is etched in my memory. She was talking with U.S. Marines who were
guarding the refugee camp. She was showing them a picture of
someone. I assumed it was a picture of her American boyfriend or
husband. I imagined her saying something like, “Do you know Joe?
Have you seen him?” I hope she found whoever she was looking for.
In 1975, Americans (and
I imagine the Vietnamese and their neighbors too) were weary of war.
I had joined the Navy a year earlier to obtain the G.I. Bill. In
December 1973, I dropped out of school at Grand Valley State with few
prospects and little cash to continue college. Honestly, I probably
would not have joined the military if U.S. forces were still being
deployed to Vietnam. The closest that I ever got to wanting to be a
war hero was as a kid watching the old Vic Morrow “Combat” TV
show about World War II in the mid-60s. Vic Morrow barking orders is
probably not war's reality.
Years later, I worked
in Grand Rapids with a fellow who served in Vietnam. Tom (not his
real name) told me that he had served his entire stint in Vietnam
somewhere near the notorious demilitarized zone or DMZ. The Pentagon
is great at coming up with world class doublespeak. Tom told me
that every day he was stationed near the DMZ was a day in which his
base received incoming artillery rounds. His DMZ was anything but
demilitarized, just the opposite. I believed Tom because I learned
very quickly not to walk up unexpectedly behind him in his office.
If you did, he would jump out of his chair like a scared rabbit. I
guess being shelled every day for more than a year does that to a
fellow.
My opinion is that we
did not do a very good job assisting Vietnam combat veterans, like
Tom, upon their return to the states. I am not talking about ticker
tape parades. What I mean is that I don't think we did a good job
providing returning veterans with mental health and medical treatment
that they needed to adjust from war to peace time, from Southeast
Asia to Michigan.
Fall 2012 seems a whole
lot like spring 1975 to me. Americans are weary of wars that have
dragged on for more than a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
recent news that 2,000 Americans have lost their life in Afghanistan
was barely a blip on the nightly news. With all the talk of cutting
budgets in Washington, one budget that should not be cut and instead
should be increased is the budget that provides mental and medical
help for service men and their families returning from combat tours
in Iraq or Afghanistan. Helping combat veterans return to civilian
life is our duty. They did theirs.
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