When I got back to Canada, same thing. Folks in Canada do not see a lot of soldiers walking around like in the States, so it’s quite something to see a soldier in uniform. I don’t think anyone had any idea I was wearing a US Army uniform. I got a lot of stares that’s for sure.
I caught a cab and was on my way home at last, excited as hell to see my family. They had no idea I was coming. I wanted to surprise them. They told us not to do that but I wanted to. I wanted to see the faces of my mom, my dad and my sweet older twin sisters. I got out of the cab and went to pay the driver. He waved me off saying, “Don’t worry son, it’s on me. Get home now.” And he drove off.
I have heard others had a hard time when they came home. Spit on, hit, treated badly. I feel terrible for those guys if that truly happened. Writing my old crew later, all of them said they had no trouble, so I don’t know. I think it did happen to some. It’s a sad affair when a guy goes off to fight for his country because he was ordered to. He has no say, he has to obey that order. Then to come home after going through all that shit to get crapped on by his own country. Jesus, that’s sad. I believe it certainly did happened to a few, but I really don’t think it happened a lot though.
At a gun show I ran into a man wearing a Marine veteran ball cap. He walked up to me as I was wearing an 11th. ACR ball cap. The only place I wore this cap was to military and gun shows hoping to run into a fellow tanker.
All this guy could talk about was how badly he was treated, spit on and beat up, had piss thrown on him every where he went. I realized this guy was no vet by the way he was talking. None of that happened to me or any other vet I talked to.
So maybe it it happen to a few but it wasn’t the norm that’s for sure.
