Vietnam+Veterans+Home+From+The+War

Veterans Coming Home From the War

As Vietnam War Veterans were coming home, they should have been respected and welcomed back with open arms. They had survived a war that was both emotionally taxing and physically exhausting. However, people at home didn’t understand what the soldiers had been through and they blamed them for what was going on in Vietnam. Of course, it wasn’t the soldiers’ fault, they were just doing what they were ordered to do. Vietnam War Veterans found themselves in the midst of hostility when they had finally come home to the place they thought they were safe. One veteran, Bill Hunt, had an interview in which he explained just how out of place he was when he came home. His wife had no concept of where he had been and didn’t know how to talk with him about it; his 16-month old daughter didn’t even remember him. Usually when veterans came home they would stay to themselves and not talk about the war. Bill Hunt was a rare exception; he talked about the war quite often until the early ‘80’s. He said something to a rather large group and was stunned when he was met by complete silence. After that happened, he was embarrassed and stunned so he stopped talking about the war for years. Other Veterans never talked about the war in the first place because it had traumatized them so much. “About one in three Vietnam veterans who served in-country suffered from full or partial Post Traumatic Stress Disorder a quarter century or more after the war. More than two in three Vietnam veterans suffered from full or partial Post Traumatic Stress Disorder sometime since Vietnam” (Vietnam War). Many Veterans should have been treated after they came home because Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is very serious; it left many feeling isolated and alone. Many Veterans took to drinking because they thought they had to carry the burden of the war all by themselves. Veterans suffering from this also found it hard to get jobs because the disorder affects qualities needed for jobs, such as mental concentration, managing anger, balancing work with relaxation, etc. Anybody who didn’t serve in Vietnam couldn’t understand what the veterans were going through, and so their time spent in Vietnam affected them and will affect them for the rest of their lives.