Not Nam: This Time, Vets Return To Warm Welcomes
With lessons from Vietnam in mind, community groups, local businesses, and faith groups are helping soldiers shift back to civilian life.
Full CSM article by Brad Knickerbocker here.
In the eyes of many critics, the war in Iraq has become a “quagmire” – reminiscent of Vietnam.
But as the nation prepares to mark the fifth Veterans Day since the US-led invasion, the two lengthy and controversial conflicts are very different in one crucial way. This time, combat vets are being welcomed back by Americans of all political persuasions.
Around the country, community groups, local businesses, service organizations, clubs, and faith groups are helping build homes with special features or providing vehicles to accommodate wounded GIs. They’re donating to educational scholarships and providing airline tickets so soldiers on leave from the war zone can get all the way home. And veterans themselves – some of them old-timers, some recently returned from war themselves – have organized to provide a comradely ear as difficult experiences are related.
In Vancouver, Wash., this Sunday, friends of Army Cpl. Jeremiah Johnson will gather for a fundraiser to build a mortgage-free home for his wife, Gale, and their two young children. Corporal Johnson was killed in Iraq earlier this year. The Salmon Creek Foursquare Church has set up a special fund, and donations of labor and materials have been coming in as well.
“It’s a true community event,” says Kelly Helmes, owner of New Tradition Homes, which is providing the building site at reduced cost and paying for all construction permits. “We’re honored to be part of the project.”
In the San Diego area, Sign-a-Rama stores last week began offering free $100 banners to welcome home veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “It seems to be something that the families can use,” says Mark Schicktanz, owner of the store in Encinitas.
The difference today is plain and particularly poignant to Vietnam veterans. “[Then] even the wounded were reviled and taunted as baby-killers,” recalls retired Army Col. Dan Smith, now a military analyst with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker lobby in Washington.
In this post-9/11 era, the changed attitude toward men and women in uniform, symbolized by individual and collective acts of kindness, appears widespread.
Even though 63 percent of Americans say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting (ABC News poll this week), 77 percent have a favorable view of the military and 72 percent say the government doesn’t give enough support to soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan (Pew Research survey in March).
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
This is sooo great
I did not support iraq, but am in total support of the military-they are doing their jobs well, and we should support them.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:37 pm“Even though 63 percent of Americans say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting (ABC News poll this week)”
Fookin’ stupid, inattentive, TV believin’ asshats deserve a good scare.
I am pleased the American people are treating our troops better than they treated us, though.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:15 pmWoot I am glad to hear something good about Washington this time… instead of the craptastic newspapers and such. This was another great post! We as Americans need to support our troops more! God Bless them!
November 8th, 2007 at 10:48 pmThis is wonderful news.
Except the 63 percent part, which I actually doubt to be true.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:29 pmGood.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:42 pmPolls are for TV-watchers and pundits who are out of touch with anything but the reality of their stupid newsrooms.
Educate the public on the global threat that we face from Islamofacism instead of filling their heads with the vapid, and inspid political regurgitation from the likes of Air America, DailKos, and Media Matters.
I was on a flight to an airport in DC and when the guys from the 82nd got off before me, they were greeted by a long receiving line of well-wishers. I stayed just long enough to hear people asking the troops if they needed anything…a coke…sandwich, whatever…Beats the hell out of what we got during the VN conflict. Only in the south were we well-received…but not this good…
As long as we at Dollard Nation, GOE, VFW, and all the other troop support groups, keep speaking up and defending our warriors the way we have been, this will continue to be the norm for our returning heroes.
As it should be.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:02 amThey Have Earned & Deserve Our Respect !!
Veterans Day Is Monday !!! Get Out there Dollard Readers
THANK A VET !!!!
http://www.angelfire.com/ar3/ceedees/ASimpleSoldier.html
November 9th, 2007 at 8:56 am