Being a veteran is trendy in New Mexico. When I wear my U.S. Navy Retired ballcap, people walk up to me on the street and thank me for my service. That surprises me every time because veterans of my generation got no thanks, especially those of us who served in Vietnam.
I was never an uber-patriot but found it natural to join the Navy when I graduated from college. The draft helped, as did my aversion to honest labor after working all through college. I was bucking a trend because many of my peers contrived to either avoid the draft or wangle a stateside assignment as a company clerk.
When my active duty ended in 1968, I never encountered the outright hostility that greeted some Vietnam veterans as described in Bob Greene’s Homecoming. Instead, I encountered quiet indifference.
I found myself several years behind my peers in building a civilian career. Most employers regarded my military service as lost time. One career counselor advised me not to mention that I had served in Vietnam when I interviewed for jobs (even though I never saw active combat and did not kill a single baby). I was fortunate to join a company that gave me credit for my experience in managing people and resources as a naval officer.
Over the years, people of my generation have told me that they protested the war in Vietnam but assured me that they always supported the troops. That’s not the way I remember it.
When I became active in the reserves in the 1970s the armed forces were largely invisible. On my first reserve tour in the Pentagon, everyone wore civilian clothes instead of uniforms. In Chicago, I was the only person at work or in my neighborhood who attended weekend reserve meetings and got static from one supervisor for my two weeks of annual active duty. When I wore my summer white uniform, some of my neighbors may have thought I was selling ice cream on the side.
One effect of this period was that military people became more isolated from the rest of America. As recently as the 1980s I encountered career officers who still thought civilian society was dominated by longhaired hippies. We still may be feeling the effects of this divide: ROTC has been excluded from some college campuses for decades, and today’s military force is more representative of the South and West than the United States as a whole.
I have always thought it was a bad decision to rely so heavily on reservists and the National Guard to sustain the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of expanding the armed forces. One positive result, however, is that widespread participation in the wars has raised awareness of the sacrifices of our service people and their families.
As a Vietnam veteran, I am touched by the outpouring of support and gratitude for today’s returning veterans. In Albuquerque, service people returning from overseas are greeted by cheering crowds at the airport. That may be because New Mexico has always had a big military presence, but I hope this is happening in other parts of the country.
It’s great to see that caring for military veterans has become a national priority. Now we need to elect more veterans to Congress. I find it disturbing that most politicians who commit American lives to conflict have never served themselves. It’s also good to see that we can have a healthy anti-war movement and still support our troops: Perhaps we are maturing as a nation.
When someone thanks me for my service, I hope it’s a sign that things have changed since the 1960s. Some day I may get used to it.