Experiences of Iowa Vietnam Veterans Returning Home from War

When veterans returned home from Vietnam, some were treated well but many were treated poorly. This video includes archival footage and first-person accounts from several Iowa veterans who share their experiences of returning home from the war.

"It was hard to leave Vietnam because you had these feelings of sadness that you're leaving colleagues, the best team you ever worked with behind."

Grace Moore returned to the United States in December of 1968 ready to leave Vietnam and the Army in the past. After being discharged, she left her footlocker with all her belongings behind. 

"And I went to the PX and I bought a set of gray Samsonite luggage, three pieces that nested inside themselves, and I came home with those three pieces empty. Got to O'Hare, I was in line and there was an elderly gentleman and he turned around and looked at me and he goes, 'Did you just get back from Vietnam?' And I'm like, 'Yeah. What's it to you?' He said, 'Please, get ahead of me.'"

While many veterans coming home from Vietnam didn't receive a hero's welcome, some did. Gerald Berry experienced the respect and appreciation of others when he had car trouble near Wichita, Kansas. 

"I pulled in there six o'clock one night, I was really having problems with my car, it was going to be a big fix job. The guy said, at the Pontiac dealership he said, 'You know, go get a hotel room and come back at seven in the morning and we'll work out how you're going to pay for this and how long it's going to take us to do it.' And another one of those things that makes you cry is get there at seven in the morning, car is detailed, it's beautiful, it's clean, not a piece of dirt on it. It's all fixed and they won't take any money or anything. They just said, have a great vacation. So, I always say if those are what you take away, America is a pretty good place."

In 1972, Roger Beau from Dubuque returned to Travis Air Force Base in San Francisco. Having completed a one-year tour of duty in Thailand, he was anxious to get to the airport and return to Iowa. 

Roger Beau: When my cab pulled up, a cab pulled up behind me and an Army guy got out of it with his duffel bag and I had my duffel bag and there was a war protest going on and we became the focus of that war protest. But we got shoulder-to-shoulder as we were surrounded by these people. They were spitting on us. They were hitting us with signs. They were screaming at us that we were baby killers. One woman stepped up and hacked in this guy's face. 

During Beau's arduous trip home, he was forced to spend the night in the Minneapolis Airport.

"This guy stepped out from the shadows and he said, 'Are you a GI?' I didn't know what to expect. He said, 'Come here.' And it just echoed. And he says, 'I have a bed for you.' I'm sorry. But -- he took me to a place where there was a cot and he took, held my plane tickets and watched after my stuff while I got some rest. The next morning I was shaken awake and said, your plane is about to leave. It was a misty morning in August. I had a window seat, looking out the window I saw the sky had a green cast to it. And I knew we were flying over Iowa. It was so green and so beautiful. I felt like I was flying into the Garden of Eden."

Most soldiers were greeted with little if any fanfare. There were no big parades, few if any community celebrations and the reunions were nothing like World War II or even those given to soldiers returning from more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"We didn't get anything. We didn't get a thank you. The emotional pain -- I'm glad the country finally woke up to how bad they treated Vietnam veterans and since then have done over the top in terms of welcoming them in parades and those kinds of things. But every time I think about it happening and what happened to us it's painful. It's too bad."