Arriving Home After Leaving Vietnam

From another Vietnam vet- Michael Cruitt

Written on Memorial Day...

"This is what I remember:

In mid-March 1968, I and a planeload of fellow soldiers returned to the US after 13 months in Vietnam. We left behind a country still embattled in the Tet Offensive (when we took off from Tan Son Nhut airbase the pilot pulled the plane up into a steep ascent to avoid ground fire). When we finally landed at Oakland Army Base we clapped and cheered and cried, extremely grateful to make it back home in one piece.

We were met on the tarmac by a squad of MPs who escorted us to a waiting bus. The bus took us to a barracks on the far edge of the base, where we were issued new “dress” uniforms. Most of us still wore nasty jungle fatigues, not appropriate for public display.

I sneaked out the back of the barracks, walked to the perimeter fence and looked out over the city. I saw hundreds of cars moving along highways and streets, people shopping and consuming – a perfectly ordinary scene. Yet, at that very second, just across the ocean, millions of people suffered and died in an unspeakable hell.

I’ll never forget that; Americans going about their business completely indifferent to the ravages of their own military.
“Memorial Day” is for picnics and barbecues . . "