The welcome home that many did not get

USA Today:

The young soldier hadn't slept in 48 hours or bathed in 72. Now that he was finally back from Iraq, all Pfc. Justin Gindhart wanted was a hot shower and a soft bed.

But these days, Gindhart discovered, a soldier's homecoming isn't always that simple.

To his surprise, there was a troop of motorcycle-riding Vietnam vets to greet him at the airport; a police-escorted motorcade, past blocked-off intersections and highway entrances, that backed up traffic for miles; an appearance at a support-the-troops rally; a gathering of neighbors and friends, alerted by fire and ambulance sirens, outside his family's house. And the biggest shock of all — a reunion with a disabled comrade whose life he'd helped save in Iraq.

"Wow! I thought I was just gonna come home," the startled private told the crowd that spilled across his lawn and into the street on Father's Day. "I didn't expect anything like this!"

He should have. Troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are being welcomed with celebrations that are increasingly elaborate, frequently surreptitious and occasionally over-the-top.

Like many of those who are greeted like latter-day Caesars, Gindhart was quick to point out that he wasn't exceptional. He was a 20-year-old medic who'd spent eight months in Iraq and hadn't been seriously wounded or highly decorated. He was home only on an 18-day leave.

For many communities, nothing is too good when it comes to showing support for returning troops.

"He really deserved something special," says Gindhart's mother, Lisa, who had only 18 hours to complete arrangements after learning of her son's scheduled arrival at the Philadelphia airport. "This is the happiest day of my life."

...

In February, El Paso announced plans for a "Welcome Home Heroes Parade" to mark the return to Fort Bliss of a unit of the First Cavalry Division.

The parade wasn't expected to be much of a draw. It would be held on a weekday and feature no floats, pop stars or beauty queens — just the 4,000 soldiers and 31 riderless horses to mark those who did not come back.

About 12,000 people showed up, lining the mile-long route and making the parade the Iraq war's largest civilian-planned homecoming celebration so far.

The unit commander, Col. Stephen Twitty, was shocked by the turnout. He said it showed that regardless of how people feel about the war, "they still support the troops."

Tellingly, the El Paso event's roots go back to 1970, during the Vietnam War. A just-discharged Army officer named John Cook stepped through the gate at Fort Lewis in Washington state and, he says, was hit by an egg thrown by a war protester.

Cook is now mayor of El Paso. "That was my welcome home to civilian life," he says.

He vowed to do better for veterans who followed. The parade, 38 years later, was a result.

At almost every homecoming celebration, there are people like Cook, repeating the lament — about how Vietnam vets were at worst spit on and at best ignored.

...

I remember when I got back from Vietnam and was enrolling in law school the woman helping me with the paperwork look around to make sure no one was watching and whispered to me, I know some around here don't appreciate what you have done, but I do and I just wanted you to know. Obviously I have never forgotten that kindness, but I am still struck by the fact that she knew she could not say so out loud.

Once I was enrolled, I pretty much ignored the anti war pukes, but I would occasionally anger them by ripping down their signs taped to the door of the law school. i remember having an angry conversation with a guy trying to get me to join the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. I was never ashamed of anything I did in Vietnam and wished I could have done more to win that war. Some say they respect those who opposed the war, but I don't. I especially do not respect people like John Kerry who slandered all of who who did fight honorably in Vietnam. It was one of the reasons he was unfit for command.

This is a very long story so you are only getting a couple of short excerpts from in this post.