A long overdue hero’s welcome is planned for noon Saturday at the Hamlet fairgrounds and Lion’s Club building, where there will be speakers, activities and lunch will be served to veterans and their families.
Rockingham attorney Don Dawkins will be the featured speaker at the event. He served two tours as a combat helicopter pilot.
“There was no parade whatsoever when I returned from Vietnam in 1963 or in 1967,” Dawkins recalled Thursday. “I felt like the public blamed me for the war, instead of the politicians who started it and sent me there.”
Dawkins said that any soldier returning from a combat zone inevitably suffers some degree of post-traumatic stress, but veterans of Vietnam had these conditions exacerbated by the lukewarm, and often downright indignant, receptions they had when they got home.
“It’s a wound, and you carry it,” Dawkins said. “When you come back from war, you expect to be hugged and welcomed. When we weren’t, there was a certain amount of the war that didn’t go away, and won’t until we are welcomed back.”
The Veteran organizations in Richmond County is holding the function in Lion’s Park.
Unlike the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who return to fanfare and wreaths with yellow ribbons on them, many Vietnam veterans report being looked down upon and shunned in social circles when they returned from the war.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Rogers said that when he returned from Vietnam, he felt pressured to not talk about his experiences there.
“We’ve got a lot of Vietnam veterans that are from Richmond County, and Richmond County has never really welcomed them home,” Rogers said. “It’s time that we were officially welcomed home.”
He said the messages the American people received from the mass media were mostly anti-soldier during the Vietnam War-era.
“The media played up a lot of the anti-war sentiments, and even today it’s still the same,” Rogers said. “They don’t play up the good things the military does ... I’d love to see people come out and let these veterans know that their sacrifices are appreciated.”
Dawkins said his speech Saturday will address the service of the fighting men against the spread of Communism.
“The crux of the speech is that we served, and we served at least equally with all of the other warriors that have fought in defense of liberty and for our great nation,” Dawkins said. “We were patriots also, as were the World War I veterans, the World War II veterans and Korean War veterans, and all of those who served in the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan.”
According to Dawkins, even though there were Americans that opposed the war, they didn’t blame the soldiers for it.
“But Vietnam was different,” Dawkins said.
He said that while he risked his life “24 hours a day for 365 times two,” many “that we were fighting for back home” were identifying with the counter-culture movement and “listening to Jane Fonda.”
“The whole Pacific theater did have a domino theory about it, and we did what we did to defend against those dominoes toppling,” Dawkins said.
He offered the words of President John F. Kennedy Jr. when he said ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.’
“We were not appreciated for what we did for our country, and I don’t think anyone really understands what we did,” Dawkins said. “Especially not those who weren’t in a foxhole.”
Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com
And then we left. And they toppled.
What a waste of 50,000 men.
But that takes nothing away from the service provided by our troops. It's a shame they weren't allowed to finish the job.
We have had a total of 11 in the family, men and women that have served our Country. None of them would ask for recognition to start with, but they all deserve it, every person, man, women, or child, yes I say child, my son went in just a few short days after his 17th Birthday. He spent his 18th Birthday in IRAQ, and will now celebrate his 21st Birthday over there. Most of us are happy to be here and not there, but they, the men and women in the Military choose to do what they do, just as we chose our way of life. Lets tell them, how much we appreciate what they do for us.
They all have my respect.
Dad is still living, he is now 80 years old.