Vietnam War Veterans to be honored Friday

Marine Veteran Tonnie Crile remembers getting into a fight with a civilian who spit on him and called him several names including 'baby killer” on his return from his first tour in Vietnam. Army veteran Lonny Milligan remembers seeing piles of military uniforms in the restrooms of airports because soldiers were ashamed to wear them in public.

Both men agree things are different and veterans of the Vietnam war are now shown the respect they deserve to be. For many years, Vietnam veterans did not have a day of remembrance to call their own. All of that changed in 2012 when then President Barack Obama declared March 29, 2012 as Vietnam Veterans Day. In 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act into law, designating March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Crile commented that it is about time Vietnam veterans be recognized. Milligan agreed the designation should have been done earlier.

'I think it is a good idea - if people will observe it,” Milligan said. 'If they will do something for it.”

'What always got me was the general who was in charge of the North Vietnamese troops wrote a book after the war was over and he admitted after the Tet Offenseive there was no way he could beat us militarily but when he sat there in his office and saw Americans protesting the War, he said he knew he had it won,” Crile said. 'Those protesters were his allies. That is what used to make me so mad. They were against us troops. I got spit on coming back from Vietnam and a lot of other guys did too.

'It wasn't a pleasant coming home. It leaves a lot of bad feelings. How they could treat the troops who had nothing to do with starting the war and were just there carrying on the war trying to free these people, I don't know.”

The American Legion has not planned an observance on Friday.

Crile said many Vietnam veterans want to forget the time they spent during the war and he knows several in the area who don't want to be recognized as a Vietnam veteran. He also knows of three people from Washington who were killed in Vietnam. He said that he hadn't spoken much with his family about his experiences in Vietnam. The two veterans swapped stories of their tours in Vietnam, recalling both camaraderie with other soldiers and the horrors of war. They spoke of not being able to trust the people they were serving in the foreign land to help, as they might be Viet Cong (VC) at night. Crile recalled the VC killing a village of Vietnamese who lived down the road from his fire base and displaying their bodies.

'When I did, they couldn't believe it, because civilians can't believe the stuff we saw,” Crile said. 'They think things like that don't happen. Well, they do.”

Crile and Milligan had different experiences in Vietnam, with Milligan working in a support position in the Signal Corps and Crile serving in the 3rd Amtrak Battalion, 1st Marines in the field; both currently serve with the American Legion Post 29 honor guard.

'Every day I look at the obituaries to see if there were any military people in there and what is surprising me is that you are starting to see the Vietnam people show up,” Milligan said. 'Not as many World War II or Korean people because there aren't many left.”

Milligan said he hopes to see this become a day of recognition and thanking the soldiers for everything they did and so people won't forget.

Many soldiers who served in the Vietnam War recall, due to widespread opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, being met with disdain upon returning home and not receiving support or gratitude for their service. Out of the 2.7 million U.S. service members who served in Vietnam, more than 58,000 were killed and more than 304,000 were wounded. An estimate by the Smithsonian suggests that approximately 271,000 Vietnam veterans may have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many report only recently feeling they had been accepted back into their home country.

One of the hardest parts of the war was the indifference of the people in the country the American soldiers were fighting for. Both told stories of Vietnamese people who were friendly to Americans during the day and fought for the VC at night.

'The little guy in the rice paddy planting rice - it wouldn't make any difference to him if he was under South Vietnamese or North Vietnamese control,” Milligan said. 'Nothing was going to get better for him.”