Posted on 08/07/2005 10:12:15 AM PDT by USMC Veteran
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Still in his Army greens, William Tallerdy barely had both feet back on American soil when a man came up to him, demanding to know if he was returning from Vietnam. Then, right there in the airport, the heckler punched the veteran in the face. Tallerdy exploded. The police and his relatives had to restrain him.
Soon after, he threw out his war ribbons. That was 1967.
"I was always proud of my military service," said Tallerdy, who is now 57 and lives in Cheyenne, Wyo. "It was just that people made me feel like scum."
Tallerdy wasn't alone. Many returning Vietnam veterans, faced with a hostile public, threw out their medals. Some, like former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, even did it in public as an act of protest. Others simply tossed them in drawers and foot lockers – if out of sight, perhaps out of mind.
Four decades and a nation friendlier to the military, though, have helped a number of veterans come to terms with their service. Now, they regard their medals with a renewed sense of pride – and are replacing them or dusting them off.
"We made peace with the former enemy," said Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. "And we made peace with a former enemy that had defeated us, which is extremely hard to do."
Tallerdy requested his Purple Heart medal a few years ago. Today, the replacement is in a cabinet alongside eagle figurines, dog tags and other war memorabilia.
The Pentagon doesn't keep statistics on replacement medals, according to spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke. The anecdotal evidence from the veterans themselves, however, suggests the numbers are high.
While Tallerdy displays his Purple Heart in his living room, William Muns shows off his honors – among them the Good Conduct and Vietnam service medals – on the wall of his office in Beaver County, Pa., where he is the county's director of veterans affairs.
Muns had stashed his medals and his uniform inside a foot locker when he came home in January 1968. He wanted to move on. He never talked about the war, not even with his family.
Then, five years ago, his wife brought his medals out and created a shadow box for him.
"'You were there. You were exposed. You were put in harm's way,'" Muns recalled her telling him.
Many who served in Vietnam, Muns said, are in the process of "coming out" as the passage of time has changed feelings about that war.
"Today we're showing ourselves because we want those men that are active right now to know that they are welcome and they are being supported," Muns said.
Honored though he was, John Wallace packed up his medals because he just didn't want to relive that moment when he helped men out of a downed helicopter before a B-52 strike.
That changed in 1989 when Wallace began doing advocacy work for veterans.
"The doors started opening up in my mind," Wallace said. "I was feeling better, I was relating more to my brothers in arms than I was to the civilians."
Now, he's president of the Vietnam Veterans of America state council in Maine and keeps his medals, which include the Bronze Star and Air Medal, on the wall in his computer room.
"They see that and it sort of makes them feel better," Wallace said of younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. "They can ask about how I got them, I can explain to them how I got them. It makes them feel better because what I went through was maybe worse than what they went through."
Tallerdy traveled to Branson, Mo., last month for the first Operation Homecoming USA, a weeklong tribute to Vietnam veterans. The experience moved him profoundly.
"I think now," he said, "it's almost become prestigious to say that you're a Vietnam veteran."
It was because of a confrontation between Lehman and Rickover. Rickover being the crotchety old man that he was thought some of Lehman's decisions for the future of the submarine force were stupid and told him so. Lehman didn't like this and had Rickover removed. It pains me that Lehman didn't listen to the advice of the admiral who did the most (in my opinion) to win the Cold War.
The left is not at this point yet towards today's veterans. They are getting there and let's hope they never do but, should they, let's hope that the LE charge the left with a HATE Crime. Hey, the left invented the idea, so when they do such things against the veterans let's use their bright idea against them.
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1st Cav's 1st Days in Vietnam-1965
http://www.WeWereSoldiers.com
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set2.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set3.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
http://www.hcvvo.org/
Several thousand Vets have been "coming out" at a reunion every Sept for 15-20 years. And it gets bigger every year.
And Thank You!
Is it ok to post this?
Howard County Vietnam Veterans Organization, Inc. invites you to attend the 23rd Annual Indiana Vietnam Veterans Reunion
Sept. 15-18, 2005
Camping is available, at a cost of $10 per night and the cost of admission is $10 per person for the entire weekend. To reserve a campsite at Veterans Park, your membership must be current. Reservations can be made by contacting Dick Forrey at (765) 628-0297 or you can contact Dick by email at Frogbo6566@globesurfer.net.
September Entertainment Schedule
Thursday, Sept. 15th, 2005
6-9pm Pre-reunion concert with "The Russ Chandler Show"
Friday, Sept. 16th, 2005
Noon Opening Ceremonies including Sam Davis CMH
12:30 pm The Ron Jones Show "American Warrior"
1:30 pm Memorial Garden Dedication
2 pm Dan Nightingale "So Freedom Can Fly"
3 pm POW/MIA service with Carl Cain
3:30 pm John Steer will be singing for you
5 pm Royal Butz back by popular demand!
6 pm Rewind Band, rocking like never before
8:30 pm The Bluz Brothers from the House of Blues Chicago,
The best act ever!
Saqturday, Sept. 17th, 2005
10 am Opening Ceremonies including Sam Davis CMH
10:30 am POW/MIA service with Carl Cain
11 am John Steer singing once again for you
Noon A Salute to our active military and American Veteran from
Desert Storm forward through Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts
12:30 pm Southern Oblivion Band
2 pm Russ Chandler performing for you
3:30 pm Britt Small of Festival Band Fame, A Vietnan Vet that brought
us all together
4:45 pm Mike Cobb a Rolling Thunder national Board Director
5pm POW/MIA Vigil at Tookolo Hall, sponsored by Rolling Thunder
Chapter 5 of Ohio
5:30 pm Surrender Dorothy Band the resident band of the Annual James
Dean Festival playing your favorite hit songs!
7:30 pm Royal Butz back by popular demand!
8:30 pm Wayne Barker Jr. and Vettz Band, with us for almost 20 years!
Sunday, Sept, 18th, 2005 Sunday Services with the Rev. John Steer & HCVVO Chaplain,
Dennis Chapman
I left Danang in March of '69. Was there for 9 months. Flew with VQ-1 as a member of the Big Look Spooks out of NCS San Miguel, PI and Kamiseya, Japan. Made 67 missions over the North.
I too got spit on when I got off the plane in SFO. I back-handed the little bastard and kept walking. His hippy girl friend was screaming for security to arrest me. The cop just smiled and nodded at me. I kept walking.
I never felt ANY shame. I was from a military family. Father and both brothers were careerists. Mother was a Red Cross nurse at every duty station my father went to. I managed to do 12 years before they medicaled me out for injuries sustained in Nam.
I went on to staff duty in London, Instructor duty in Pensacola and Comm Chief duty in Rota Spain. Finished up- at CINCLANTFLT on limited duty while they were doing my medical boards. The 4 O6 officers on the board looked at me funny. Standing there with E8 stripes, wings and five rows of ribbons. They said I didn't look like a slacker. Told them if their doctors could fix me I'd be in for 30. But they couldn't. They let me out with 30%.
McNamera lost that war. He should have been shot for treason.
Lotsa VN vets on this forum. I salute you all, brothers in arms. Stay proud - and find some peace...
I never lost my pride over serving in Vietnam. I came home and wore my uniform wherever I went, on duty and off. I used to take my wife to a nice restaurant once a month and wore my dress blues with full sized medals. I got a lot of angry stares but no one ever challenged me or got in my face except that first time I came home after my first tour in Nam.
I had friends who never wore a uniform off duty. But I was not going to let a bunch of anti war, anti military people tell me I couldn't wear my uniform.
I can still remember wearing my Khaki uniform with ribbons when I went off base to have a drink in El Paso, Texas. I got a lot of respect from people in the Hispanic community and stares and angry comments from the rest of it.
Loved pissing off the liberals.
"When you see a vet, thank him"
Thank you, USMC
And for any here who served in or during Vietnam, you may be reluctant to think you deserve more gratitude than other veterans, but you do deserve more. Why? Because you never gave up on us although you had more than enough reasons:
You did your duty and protected the rights of all of us, including the hippies, yippies & drugged out flower children who were back home threatening to occupy buildings, sabotage water supplies, and taking over city streets yelling kill the "pigs"-their hateful term for the police.
You kept your word and honored your oath by following orders through four tumultous administrations, two democrat CINCs, two republican CINCs and so proved to us that your committment was for love of your country and respect for the office of the Commander in Chief....not politics.
You came home without a proper "welcome back" and very few thanks and you shrugged it off and went on to start carreers and families and get on with your lives. But you must have cringed over these many years at the way the MSM always seemed to find a way to insert the words "Vietnam Veteran" into every tragic story they could find.
I wonder if your brothers, The Swift Boat Veterans, fully appreciate what they did for the country last year? They reminded us that we sent our treasure to fight in Vietnam and that Honorable and Brave men did the fighting. They were the POWs and the troops who wanted us to remember their fallen comrades and those still missing.
I hope you VN Vets understand that when Americans opened their pocketbooks and their hearts last year to the Swift Boat Vets, it was because we know that you never gave up on us, and we finally had a way to say that extra thank-you.
I went to Kokomo 1989-92. Always a blast! Finally got my arms around Chris (and THE kiss) there, LOL. And never forgot Becky's ummmm dancing! :)
It's gotten to the point where, for the last several years, the cops have set up DUI checkpoints in every direction from the grounds.
If one doesn't camp there, don't drink(yeah...right) or have a sober driver.
are you the digger who was once yanked from the program at selfridge because of speaking out about the IMF?
I've owned my store for 4 Memorial Days. Every year I post on my outside marquee the following:
"To the uniformed men and women who gave up all their tomorrows for our today, we salute you and we thank you.
Rest In Peace."
I get phone calls from people driving bye complementing and congratulating me for it.
I tell them but for the grace of God, I'd be one of them.
Then I get the 20-30 something numbnuts and their female counterparts asking me what it's all about. I don't even both to explain it.
A customer of mine's son came home from Iraq a month or so ago and she threw him a party at the local fireman's pavillion. She contracted me for 300 pieces of chicken and 25 lbs of potato salad and coleslaw. You should have seen the look on her face when I tore up the check...
You have to have been there to really appreciate what our men and women go through. And it ain't always pretty...
"We made peace with the former enemy," said Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. "And we made peace with a former enemy that had defeated us, which is extremely hard to do."
Defeated Us??? No F'n way!!!
Damn Kerrey, and his ilk all to hell!
No no no... not me.
I'm a civilian who has an employee(and friend)Purple Heart who is big-time into the Vet reunion.
I just wanted some of you other guys to hear about it. They get guys from all over the world attending.
And to offer my thanks for those of you who have served.
thanks for posting about Kokomo.....of the reunions and whatnot I've seen, Kokomo is the best......come to think of it, I was there in 88, too....the same year as Cleveland
They bought an old private airport some years back, 5 miles E of town and outgrew it already.
geez. I'm Holiday Inn vintage, LOL and NVVC type....wee wee aay ain't about nothin' but itself, even back in those days.
"To the uniformed men and women who gave up all their tomorrows for our today, we salute you and we thank you.
Rest In Peace."
So very true CT, and a it is a beautiful tribute.
Funny, I manage two stores and we ask customers if they are eligible for the military discount...if they are, they invariably say thanks, and we gently tell them that this is our little way of saying thank-you to them.
You're right, we can't know what they wen't through in Viet Nam, or what they are going through now...but we can look for these opportunities to show them we appreciate them.
P.S.
Tell your bud Hello from the guy with the POW flag sewn to the back of the Stars and Stripes on a 9 ft surf rod.....I'm sure he'll recall me.
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