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The Homecoming

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Actualy, I read this book which was translated in Japanese ( I am Japanese). I couldn't read it without weep. When Soliders return from Vetnam, they felt disillusion because they believed that they fight for thier country. However, there were many terrible things for them.

this book will help the mainstream american understand the many different and complex experiences and reactions of those who returned from vietnam, as well as the feelings and reactions of their relatives and friends, and can also serve as a reference .

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation," said George Washington. Damn straight. Although it's been out for two decades, Bob Greene's book is a stunning depiction of how NOT to support our troops. I'm glad things aren't like that today.

There is a current effort by activist revisionist "historian" Jerry Lembcke to debunk the stories of Vietnam vets being spat on when they returned to the US. This is part of the larger attempt by the now elderly people of his generation to whitewash the dark side of the 60's overall. In an attempt to find ways to absolve themselves of the guilt they feel for much of the evil they participated in during those times, many are now resorting to distortions of the truth to reach some kind of peace with their actions. Unfortunately, these distortions are often cloaked in academic garb.

Bob Greene's Homecoming stands as a complete refutation of those distortions. Since Greene lets the soldiers speak for themselves, the true experiences and raw emotions of those times shine through.
Yes, soldiers were spat upon--and worse. Some were also treated well. The section entitled, "There are Some Things Worse Than Being Spat Upon" will break your heart.

As history, Homecoming is a must read for every high school student in America (and for all those under the age of fifty). It should also be read by those aging boomers awash in nostalgia for the summer of love.

I just purchased a used copy from Amazon for a young, male nurse, in his 40s, who has signed a commission to be a First Lieutenant, given a stipend, and given two years to finish his Masters Degree in Psychiatric Nursing, whereupon he will have 3 years of active duty and 3 years in the Reserves (at least this is how he understands it and has communicated to me).

I try to give him all the information I know about war, having studied it after coming home from my second tour in Vietnam, with a lot of anger and PTSD, in 1972. I think I am one of hundreds of thousands (who had psychiatric problems upon returning), perhaps millions, that our country used, led by fearful, selfish politicians, and General Officers (and the younger officers hoping to rise in the ranks), hoping to make their military careers.

To say I am very angry and disabled by my anger is sufficient, and I will say I am thankful I am alive at the age of 61, getting medical care from the VA, and NOT IN A PRISON, where I might have ended up if I had a slightly different personality (as many Vietnam Vets are serving life sentences in prison as I write, who were unfortunate enough not to be able to manage their anger as well as I was; a gift of fate, I think).

I have had polite written intercourse with the famous Vietnam Veteran, Jerry Lembeke, who served (as he wrote to me) as a Chaplain's Assistant in Bin Dihn Province, in II Corps, operating out of Qhi Nhon, in 1969, before I arrived in Long My Valley in December, 1969. Because nobody spit on him, he thinks that it never happened, and is a myth. At least, this is how I understood his point of view, although he has had at least one veteran write to him, who was spit on, who offered to spit on Jerry.

I got the feeling that Jerry is starting to have second thoughts, but he will have to speak for himself. I told him that, if I was spit on, and read his book, I would have much stronger feelings than just wanting to spit on him, BUT HOPEFULLY, I would not be acting that out. I am one veteran who does not own a firearm, because I do not want to end up using it on someone out of a temporary spate of anger.

I think I have personally met two veterans, in therapy at the VA, who have told me they were personally spit on. Right now, I am reading a book about a Vietnam Veteran who turned to Buddhism for therapy, and he says he was spit on by a young woman at the airport upon arriving home. He says he expected her to come over and give him some sort of welcome, and got the saliva in his face instead. His name is Claude Anshin Thomas, and his book sits in front of me now, entitled AT HELL'S GATE.

My VET CENTER counselor from Philadelphia, Robert Brelle, now deceased from Lupus since 12-31-99, told me that when he came back from his first tour of duty in 1966, he was at the airport, leaned over to pick up his sea bag in his dress greens, and some older lady came over and stubbed her ice cream cone out on the back of his uniform (as if she was stubbing out a cigarette). Bob, who was a Marine Dog Handler, lost his Marine Dog to heat exhaustion on a forced march in Vietnam, and returned to Vietnam in 67-78 for a second tour as Marine infantry.

I think he told me that on one of his tours, someone blew up the First Sergeant's hutch in the unit he was attached to. In my second tour, in 1971-71, in what I call the 101st Heroin/Race Riot/Fragging Division at Phu Bai Airport, one of our men threw or shot a grenade, which landed on the top of the orderly room, not too far from where I was sleeping at night, in my room next to the mail room at the end of the orderly room. I think the Army History Museum says there are still several hundred murders by fragmentation grenade of senior NCOs and Officers, still unsolved. So for Jerry Lembcke, who doled out good wishes as a Chaplain's assistant, to insist that there were no angry people, spitting at veterans, seems rather silly to me, considering the long, angry war, both at home and In-Country.

If you think about rape, and how many women are raped, and how many women do NOT EVEN REPORT RAPES, you can imagine why there are no actual police reports of spitting. If you understand the macho attitude that is required of even sensitive young men like me who served at large support bases, purposely avoiding the infantry, you would understand why any military personnel, just home from Vietnam for a few hours or days, traveling through the airport in California, hoping to get home and back to a normal life, WOULD NEVER REPORT A SPITTING INCIDENT.

I was not spit on, but if I was, do you actually think I would call the police and make a report...LOL? I mean, come on, and I respect Jerry's point of view as a human being, BUT EVERY TIME I HEAR NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO USE HIS INTERVIEW AS A PROMOTIONAL SPOT, I get very irritated. I love National Public Radio, but it seems to me that the hosts of my age group are the same people who avoided the Vietnam War by going to college, and I guess they think that Jerry, with is college credentials, is the guy to look to for information.

I mentioned Bob Greene's famous book to him via e mail, and his response was that because Greene was fired from his position at the newspaper for doing exactly what Bill Clinton, John Edwards, or Senator Strom Thurmond did, which is to act out with a Sex and Love Addiction, made Greene's work suspect. Well, IS EVERYTHING President Clinton, Senator Edwards, or Senator Thurmond did suspect, just because of a sex and love addiction, having affairs with people under them? Obviously not.

I looked at Jerry Lembecke's e mail address, and it was from a Catholic College, apparently where he works, and I would suspect that Jerry's morality and Christian good will as a veteran of the chaplain's corps is allowing him to go around the country, giving interviews, claiming that nobody was spit on. I do not say this out of malice, but it is the only conclusion I can come to.

I met a man here when I moved to rural Maine, who stood on the deck of his aircraft carrier, in his dress white uniform, as it passed under the Golden Gate bridge in 1973, coming home from a tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam, who had eggs dropped upon him from above. So I will finish this tirade of mine by saying that there is a lot of cover up and false information given out about any war, and I must say that I really respect the book Bob Greene published, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart. Roger J Stavitz, currently living in Danforth, Maine.

I read this book years ago but I purchased this for a friend. My friend at work was one of these soldiers who received this kind of Homecoming. Like the Japanese who were interned during WWII he felt ashamed for something he didn't do. I have spoken to both types and they just want to sweep it under the rug. This angers me because I see the guilt they bear. Our Country let them both down. I think thankfully we recognize how the Viet-Nam Vet was treated and we have made amends. I saw this after the first Gulf War. My friend is still angry because he was never welcomed home. He told me when they came home his friends threw away their uniforms. He couldn't and remembers the Baby Killer comments. This book brings to light how kids were sent to war came back. This book will make you cry, mad and understand what these men have gone through.I hope when my friend reads this book he will realize he was not alone.