N.C. Vietnam vets finally get their homecoming

(CBS News) - When the Vietnam War ended, there was no official homecoming ceremony. Many vets were shunned.

Several groups in North Carolina, including the USO, wanted to make things right. This past weekend, more than 60,000 people gathered at the Charlotte Motor Speedway to say thank you. CBS News correspondent Anna Werner followed the story of former Marine, De Hillyer.

It took 43 years for Hillyer to get to this day. This day for smiles and hugs has been a tough journey.

Hillyer arrived in Vietnam in 1968. As a 25-year-old Marine sergeant, he served at Camp Dong Ha. He was the third generation of his family to serve his country during a time of war.

"Part of me changed forever over there," he told CBS News. "There's some part of you you just can't change. I wish I could."

Hillyer's tour in Vietnam lasted 13 months. The war was deeply unpopular back home, and its brutality left its mark on him.

When he returned to the U.S., he faced a homecoming he could not have imagined, Hillyer explained. Anti-war protesters greeted his busloads of soldiers by spitting and throwing rocks. The former soldier said the homecoming took away his innocence.

"I came back to a country where I had felt safe previously, and all of a sudden, I didn't feel safe anymore. It took away my security," he explained.

Hiller became a church pastor, all the time fighting feelings of anger and depression. He tried to commit suicide twice.

Three years ago, he joined a therapy group with fellow veterans R.Z. McClain, Reggie French and Marvin Cuffee. All of them were struggling to put Vietnam behind them.

"Sometimes people say, 'I know how you feel,' but unless you've really been there you don't know how we feel," Cuffee said.

This past Saturday morning, Hillyer and thousands of his fellow veterans finally got their welcome home, with North Carolina's first ever celebration to honor their service. He said it was a "very good feeling."

Now the former soldiers can have closure to that part of their life. After four decades, those who left their home to fight finally got their homecoming.

[A-PROUD-VETS-WIFE]

I would like to invite all of you to our "ALL VETS"reunion in Indiana. WE have 2 a year now, we have grown so much over the last 25 years. We have over 1800 members from all over the US. We offer camping and there hotels in town with shuttles buses that will take you each way if you don't want to drink. Here is the web site www.hcvv.org Most of the men here are Vietnam vets. We are in Kokomo Indiana, guarantee you will have the best time. We call it the healing field!

[Sympathyforthem]

You have a friend in Jesus.

Fought in a war He did not choose. Rejected by the those He came to serve. Betrayed by the one He loved. Abandoned on a God-forsaken tree. Died so you might live.

Receive Jesus today.

[cajun_snake]

I think, for me anyway, the warmest "welcome" I get...is from other Vietnam Vets. I've tried to explain to my kids, I didn't fight to preserve anybody's freedom, or to give anybody a better, freer life. I fought to protect 12 guys I grew up with, people who were closer to me than my own brother. I do believe though, this country would find it hard to behind the troops of today, with the stain of what was done to us so many years ago.

To the Nam vets...welcome home, but please remember our brothers that "our government" sold out and left behind.


Army Vet

[mejb68]

Vietnam Vet 1968 USMC. After so many years of struggling I
still don't fully know who I am.

[Ghost_dancer]

This gathering was an attempt to recognize and say thank you to those of us who served in those terrible times. There have been events from internet websites to groups like the founders of this event that honestly try to amend forty years of misunderstandings regarding the Vietnam Veteran. I would have loved to attend this event in NC but my wheelchair was not up to the trip.
The people of today are making honest attempts to correct the years of misunderstandings but having not been there, can not comprehend our feelings. The people of today are used to the way the Veterans of the Sandbox are treated and this is good. As no man can really understand the experience of giving birth, These younger people can only do what they learn is a way to thank today's Vets. I hope that they are learning by observing what we go through and will continue to thank and support the current group of Veterans. The thing that these people will never fully understand is the years we have lived and relived the memories of our past. By seeing photos of the wounded that lost limbs to IED's,They see what war is but still cannot see the wounds inside any Veteran. All Veterans carry wounds that cannot be seen and I, for one, don't want some shrink the age of my children poking into places I do not want to be. I can talk with other Vets about PTSD or anything like it because they understand and also have the thing the medical world calls PTSD. We know what we want to remember and what we don't. One VA shrink tried to sink into my mind and take me to the combat. I don't want to relive that stuff. I am tired of dreaming about the blood and violence and don't need to be reminded.
There are many out there today that will say thank you for your service because they think it's the thing to do and then there are ones like I met yesterday that had me in tears.
I was parked in front of a supermarket and my step daughter was inside getting a few things. A lady that was close to my age came up to my truck and instead of the usual hollow greeting, came right up to the door and said thank God you made it home. My husband was with the 173rd and didn't come back. After this wonderful lady went on her way, I was in tears and should have been thanking her for her service and thanking her husband for his sacrifice. When my step daughter got back in the truck, she asked why I was crying. How do you explain it to a 30yr old girl with learning disabilities? She understands I am a Veteran and a Patriot but can't comprehend the meaning of the term.
Whenever someone approaches me and says the obligatory Thank you, I just smile and say thank you for your greeting.The Gold and Blue Star moms are the hardest to face. I came back and their hero didn't.

[hamiltongrad]

Do you think CBS and the mass media will apologise too ?

[jstaro]

No Revenues = No Sacrifice = No Support = DeJa-Vu all over again!. Now a decade and counting, told to go shopping, added to the previous decades of under funding the VA, while the peoples reps Still try and lay blame on the Agency, after rubber stamping wars and costs of and those represented cheer on these wars!

While the wealthy and other investors garner their booty, still, from both and many have the chutz-pa to call themselves more patriotic{?} then others wrapped in those false flags, using false slogans and various cheap symbols of!

USN '67-'71 All Shore GMG3 Vietnam In Country '70-'71

[jstaro]

Think, just of the past decade, of 'swiftboating' and the 'purple heart bandages' as to 'support' for Vietnam Veterans, while sending troops into two more wars of choice and all the condemnation words and actions towards other vets, and citizens, for not walking in lockstep! Right up to the present: Veterans Outraged Over GOP Rep's Comments, teabag favorite re: U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh pointed at Tammy Duckworth "Joe Walsh: Tammy Duckworth A 'Wounded Veteran -- What Else Has She Done?'

Or how about that 'revenue': House Budget Makes Zero Mention of Veterans. Eleven billion in cuts. VCS take on Ryan Budget Proposal

After This Past Decade and all that's been said and done by many in this country, especially by representatives of the people, "Welcome Home", I don't think so!!!!!

[GBUJarhead]

I was drafted - my draft notice was delivered to me on a hill southeast of Khe Sanh in June, 1968. When I came back to the World, I was unable to process the disrespect I immediately encountered. I still am not comfortable around those who have not served.

Mr. Kipling seemed to understand that:
We aren't no thin red 'eroes nor we aren't blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy fall be'ind,"
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind—
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind—

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all;
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool—you bet that Tommy sees!

[blueaggie1]

Interesting that there has never been any effort to celebrate the anti-war protesters who spat and threw rocks at those who served in the military at the time. Probably the same reason you never read in the obituary column about anyone saying that they were a drug using unemployed hippie protester during that era. Thankfully, now those who those protesters sought to abuse and debase for their service are getting a measure of 'self' back. Thank God, it's about time.

[harleyinmt1]

Do these people really think that this charade would really make a combat Nam Vet feel any better after all these years. For me it's 44 years too late. Nothing these people could do now would possibly help me feel any better. Frankly, I don't care less at this point but if it makes you feel better now, go ahead and do your little thing. It won't change anything in my life at this point...... Losers