Good Bye Vietnam
I'm Homeward Bound
National Archives Photographs
National Archives Photographs
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Coming Home from Vietnam, on a World Airways ( BOEING 734 ) who held
a contract with the government to transport troops both to and back home
from Vietnam.
I was proud to have been a Marine in Vietnam and to have belonged to the finest fighting force the world has ever known.
I departed form Marine Transient Facility DaNang RVN Tuesday at 2225 (Time) on 3 Dec. 1968, 11 months, 20 days,20 hrs. and 25 minutes in country and Love Child by
Diana Ross and the Supremes was the No.1 . song. From their I went to Okinawa, got some more immunization shots and the next afternoon, Dec. 05 - 1968 I was off to the good old USA.
It was a long, uncomfortable flight but there was a movie "The Good,The Bad and The Ugly" Western. 161 min. Rated R (Clint Eastwood) the Greatest and Best Western Ever Made. Next stop was EL TORO MARINE CORPS AIR STATION SANTA ANA, ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. As we left the plane, their was no welcome and there was almost nobody at all at the terminal and nobody knew where we had just come from. Upon arrival and check-in at EL TORO MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, we were told that we could have liberty passes for the weekend and to report back for 3 days of out processing on the following Tuesday. Got back on Tuesday and did the necessary paper work, the medical wasn't nothing except for a few blood test, and on Friday afternoon, I will catch a flight home. My biggest mistake was wearing my military uniform to go home, because anyone who wore the uniform back then, was a target of the radical anti-war movement and many was being treated like trash. Back from Vietnam just a few days and already getting greeted by hoots and howls and scorn, take off your uniform Grunt and join the protestant movement, loud denouncement of our presence in Vietnam, and how we should be ashamed. "They were trying to use "Nam Vet" as an escape goat," it was a shock and a disgraceful reception for me and so many other veterans coming home. Many who opposed the war had no ideal what they were really talking about. They had no ideal of what was really happening in Vietnam. I retreated to the mountains for a while and quietly, made returns to live I'd previously lead for a while and hid my experiences from family members, friends, and prospective employers. I attempted to forget all about being in Vietnam but I will never stop being pissed at the disgraceful reception I got from the yippies, flag burners, protesters, pampered middle class. over spoiled college brats who exaggerations horror stories and out-right lies concerning our troops in Vietnam. I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time when I return home....There will never be a magical time when everything falls into place for me, that's life!  
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