Are Vietnam Veterans ready to forgive

It's a good question. I know some have already forgiven and some never will. Then there are others writing once in a while commenting on the treatment of the new veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they had the same emotions when Gulf War veterans came home to cheers, parades, full airport waiting areas and parties with "welcome home" banners. They believe these veterans deserve what they are getting, but most know it was because they were treated so badly, most of it is possible now for others. There are things we can never make up for and things time has only made worse for some, but to not try, to not reach out and prove to them how sorry we are, that would be an even bigger slap in the face to them.

Events like this are good but what would matter more to them is to be taken care of when they have carried the burdens deep inside for all these years. Many Vietnam veterans still don't know there is a name for what is wrong with them and there is help to heal. Many try to seek help at the VA but the lines are too long, claims too complicated and denials come fast. There used to be Veterans Centers they could go to when they didn't want to go to the VA, but there are not enough of them to go around. If we were really serious about making it up to them, we'd really take care of them.

Vietnam vets to gather for ‘welcome home’: Are they ready to forgive?
PAT SCHNEIDER The Capital Times

You’ve got to understand what it was like here at home during the Vietnam War. How rapidly society was changing. How deep and broad opposition to the war grew and how sharp the backlash was.

Soldiers returning from their time “in country” entered an altered landscape. The “Ballad of the Green Berets” was blown away by Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock. Madras plaid button-downs bled into tie-dyed T-shirts. College students cut classes for anti-war protests, leaving a waft of marijuana smoke in their trail.

As protests spread and confrontations with police grew violent, some returning soldiers were met with taunts, and nobody postponed the revolution to welcome them home. Most often they were greeted with shrugs, veterans say today.

Jim Kurtz of Middleton recalls landing at Truax Air Force Base in Madison in 1967 when he came home from Vietnam, where he led an infantry platoon. “There was nobody there but my parents. From other people, it was apathy, like you had been in Chicago working or something.”

On May 21-23, Wisconsin Vietnam veterans are invited to gather at Lambeau Field in Green Bay for LZ (Landing Zone) Lambeau, what organizers are billing as a long-delayed “welcome home.” The event, sponsored by Wisconsin Public Television and state veterans agencies and organizations, began as a preview for a WPT documentary series on Vietnam veterans but has ballooned into a three-day affair with big names and big-time attractions. Packer great Bart Starr is set to appear, the traveling version of the powerful Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will be erected, and military aircraft will fly over the staging ground.

LZ Lambeau set for May 21-23
Vietnam documentary on TV
Wisconsin Public Television and the Madison Public Library will offer a preview screening of “Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories,” a new WPT documentary, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, at the Madison Public Library, 201 W. Mifflin St.

A discussion will follow with the documentary makers, the author of a companion book and Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley.

The three-part documentary featuring stories of veterans’ experiences on the battlefield and coming home will air at 8 p.m. on May 24, 25 and 26.

read more here

Are they ready to forgive