FORT BENNING, Ga. - This homecoming has been a long time in the making.
Shunned, ridiculed and even spit on in some cases four decades ago during the nation's turbulent past, Vietnam War veterans finally got a long-awaited tribute June 5 at a daylong "welcome home" celebration. The event started with a ceremony honoring the veterans, including Huey helicopter rides all day, and closed with a barbecue and concert featuring country music star Aaron Tippin.
The event's museum portion unfolded near the traveling Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall on Heritage Walk, which remains on display through June 13.
"It's a healing process, like anything else," said MSG(R) Bill Brickner, who completed two tours in Vietnam. "Talking to a lot of my friends at the VFW and American Legion ... a lot of them feel the Army still owes them something - not money or health care or dental care. They just feel it owes them something.
"This is something that's long overdue."
Brickner spent more than 28 years in the Army, retiring in 1991 after serving in the Gulf War.
He said he has mixed emotions when he sees today's troop returns from Iraq and Afghanistan at Lawson Army Airfield - with the pageantry, video-screen images showing Soldiers getting off the plane and bands playing as family and friends soak up the moment.
"We didn't get any of that stuff," Brickner said. "Our plane landed and we had people outside with all these signs. They were throwing tomatoes and using bad language. We couldn't do anything about it.
"A lot of those Vietnam vets, we thought, that's not the way we should've got treated ... The Vietnam guys felt like we really weren't appreciated. We won the scrimmages over there, but we didn't really win the war. We wondered, 'What did we accomplish'' That's kind of how we felt."
MG(R) Ken Leuer, a Ranger Hall of Fame member who spent 32 years in the Infantry, said coming back from Vietnam was a better experience for him. He served with the 173rd Airborne Brigade from 1966-67 on his first tour. As a lieutenant colonel, Leuer commanded the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, participating in eight campaigns and more than 200 combat air assaults.
In 1972, he brought the division colors back to Fort Campbell, Ky., during a homecoming for about 2,000 Soldiers attended by then-Vice President Spiro Agnew.
"I don't have an axe to grind. I had a wonderful welcome home with my unit, and it was very well done," Leuer recalled. "But I think it's important we bring closure to everyone involved, so that as we're all entering into the twilight years of our life, we can go to our eternal hereafter knowing that our country loved us.
"We have a great nation. From my perspective, our nation has always worked hard to say 'thank you' to those who have given their life and served to protect the freedom we enjoy."
Despite his checkered return, Brickner said he wouldn't trade his Vietnam service for anything. The camaraderie matters most to him.
"Even though (troops) got that disgruntled feeling when they came back, they wouldn't have it any other way," he said. "It really brought a lot of guys closer together. They supported each other. A lot of the units I was with, it was 'I got your back, you got mine.' That's about the closest to a stranger I ever felt, yet still feel secure. I wouldn't change anything about my experience over there."
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