Vietnam veterans finally get their due

For Vietnam War veterans, the first annual observance expressly in their honor is a chance to receive thank-yous deferred for decades.

Though belated, the ceremonies this month could undo some of the bitterness vented on U.S. soldiers in the late 1960s and give them the same appreciation given the veterans of other wars, predicted one of the observance's chief backers in the state.

"They were shocked. They didn't expect a heroes welcome, but they did expect to be treated like normal Americans," said Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, a 26-year Marine Corps veteran who served 13 months in Vietnam and co-wrote the Assembly bill to designate the day.

"It was a really bad time, and I think a lot of anger was directed toward veterans or anyone in the military — quite different from the attitude toward men and women serving today."

A Vietnam veteran in suburban Los Angeles, José Ramos, began petitioning cities and states a decade ago to give fellow veterans an observance distinct from Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

In September 2009, the Legislature passed a bill to recognize the day, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it into law. According to the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day Organization, 11 other states have created observances for March 30 — the day in 1973 when the U.S. withdrew its last troops from the country, two years before communist North Vietnam's conquest of the south, which American forces had backed for more than a decade.

Former servicemen organizing or planning to attend the Yuba City remembrance on Monday recalled the scorn that greeted them upon returning home from a conflict that not only killed about 58,000 U.S. service members, but left their country sharply divided. Army Sgt. Ray Bull saw the schism for himself while attending Yuba College in 1970, after his return from Southeast Asia. A raucous demonstration against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia drew hundreds to the campus, he recalled, and left the Marysville native facing down a hostile audience almost alone.

"They passed the microphone around to other students who were denouncing the war — until the mike got to me," said Bull, 63, now commander of the Yuba-Sutter United Veterans Council. "I said we should've invaded in 1967, when I was there; that did not go over well. I was equally afraid that day as when I was in combat."

Dedicating a day for Vietnam veterans will call greater attention to ex-soldiers beset by post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and homeless, its advocates say. Coming to terms with the past also could help troubled veterans get a better chance of getting help and re-entering society, according to LeRoy Flagor of Yuba City, who served two tours in Vietnam and now is commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 948 in Marysville.

"There was discontent; I've been spit on, been called a baby killer," said the 69-year-old Flagor, who retired as a master sergeant after 26 years in the Marines and later underwent counseling for depression. "Myself, I kept my nose to the grindstone and tried to stay away as much as I could, but it didn't always work.

The promise of appreciation for past sacrifices "makes (the observance) a lot more valuable," he said. "Those who were in it can talk about it, deal with it."

"It's not the soldiers you vent your frustrations at, it's the government that sends those soldiers," said Bull. "The American military has done what it was asked to do, and it has never failed the American people."

Know and Go

WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. Monday

WHERE: Veterans Memorial Hall, 1425 Veterans Memorial Circle, Yuba City

MORE INFORMATION: Call Ray Bull at 673-1736 or 218-0938