“Servicemen who served in Vietnam weren’t respected, nobody liked us,” says Clark, now 62. “I was in the infantry and I didn’t see anything but that dirty stinkin’ ground. I could see no reason why we were there, and a lot of my friends were killed. When I came back from Vietnam, I felt I’d wasted my time there.”
In the decades since, Clark admits he’s had no interest in attending functions related to his military service. They always proved disappointing.
“You were the butt of every joke if you were a Vietnam vet,” he says. “Anything having to do with being a veteran turned sour for me.”
That all changed in August 2010 when Clark and his wife, Gail, were invited to attend Operation Welcome Home in Fort Knox, Ky. Unbeknownst to him, his sisters had entered his name in a contest sponsored by AAA Miami Valley offering all-expenses paid trips to the event for representatives from nine surrounding counties.
“They had to drag me there,” admits Clark, who was notified that he had been selected as a winner. “I’m not an emotional person, but it brought me to tears. You couldn’t take a step on that field that someone wasn’t throwing out their hand, patting you on the back, thanking you.”
That type of recognition and appreciation are in store for veterans who attend the fourth national Operation Welcome Home slated for this Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 10-13. The variety of special events will range from a parade and memorial services to a Thursday evening Veterans Tribute at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, complete with prominent guest speakers and music by the Air Force Band of Flight.
The inspiration for Operation Welcome Home came from “Naked in Da Nang,” a memoir penned by Tipp City resident Mike Jackson, who served as a Forward Air Controller (FAC), flying Cessna O-2A Skymasters in Vietnam. Jackson is now national chairman of Operation Welcome Home and head of the American Veterans Institute, both headquartered in Tipp City.
“It was the long overdue welcome home for Vietnam veterans,” Jackson explains, referring to the first Operation Welcome Home held in November 2005 in Las Vegas. “It was supposed to be a one-time event but was so successful that we were asked by veterans in California to hold another one there in 2006. Korean War vets had approached us in the meantime to say that they were happy to see Vietnam veterans welcomed home but that they had never been welcomed home either. The Korean vets hadn’t come home to the protests and insults the VN vets did but were never welcomed or thanked for their service.”
Since that time, Jackson’s group has hosted three national celebrations and helped to organize approximately 50 local and regional celebrations. The Miami Valley event, hosted by AAA and the American Veterans Institute, will be the fourth national weekend for Operation Welcome Home. The local celebration got its start when Cindy Antrican of AAA Miami Valley first heard about the weekend at Fort Knox and encouraged her organization to spearhead a contest which would allow local Vietnam veterans to attend.
Antrican says residents and businesses throughout the Miami Valley are being asked to show their support during the celebration by displaying flags and other patriotic items. Local businesses are being provided with signs that read: “Thank you for your service and Welcome Home.”
Most importantly, Antrican says, everyone who encounters veterans over the special weekend is encouraged to offer a personal thank-you.
John Sostrom, a U.S. Navy veteran from Beavercreek, was selected to represent Greene County at the Fort Knox event and now believes every veteran deserves the “healing” that comes from attending a Operation Welcome Home weekend.
Sostrum says he’s never forgotten the hostility directed at him when he returned to Columbus after his third tour of duty in Vietnam.
“I had to fly full uniform in dress blues because I was flying military,” he recalls. “After my dad picked me up at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus, he had to stop at his office at Ohio State University. I noticed students coming across the quad and they were staring at me with such hostility that I actually felt like I wanted to go back to Vietnam where I felt safer!”
He heard similar stories, he says, from many others who served in Vietnam.
“The first thing many of them did when they arrived at an airport in America was to go to the restroom and get out of their military uniforms because people would ‘boo’ them, snicker, and call them names,” says Sostrom. “I was called names multiple times if I showed up in military uniform.”
But the “whirlwind of happenings” at last year’s Operation Welcome Home provided to be a life-changing experience for Sostrum and the nine others who represented counties in the Miami Valley.
“For the next three days we would be welcomed into homes, praised by young and old alike and shown a level of care and friendship that many of us had never felt before,” he reported following the experience. “Each (of us) was going home after finally sharing things that they had not even revealed to their spouses and families about that time.”
He determined to help plan a similar event in the Miami Valley.
“We need an event that my brothers-in-arms can come to and find some sense of relief and acceptance,” he wrote.
“We need to invite our active duty brothers and sisters and also let them know they are truly welcomed home. We need to give back and give forward.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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