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Charlie Plumb waves to crowds while riding in a classic car during a parade to honor American prisoners of war in Vietnam in May.
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Tim Brinkley, an Army veteran from Spencer, Iowa, made it out of Vietnam — on a stretcher. As they carried him across the airport, it didn’t matter that he’d been shot or that he’d served his country with honor. “We had name calling — ‘Baby Killers!’ — and they were throwing fruit.
Drafted in 1968 at age 18, Brinkley was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, serving as a sniper. He was awarded a Silver Star and was wounded in action three times.
One Purple Heart was for when a mortar hit his base, peppering his face and neck with shrapnel. Another was the result of a booby trap activated on patrol by the soldier in front of him. The third was for when he was shot through the shoulder and back, a wound that sent him back to a Denver hospital for a six-month recovery.
Many of his comrades were killed, their names now on the Vietnam Wall, which commemorates the 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam, which lasted from 1964 to 1975, then America’s longest war.
After Brinkley, now 74, was discharged, he headed to junior college, where he encountered pacifists. A sociology professor told him he wouldn’t pass a student if they found out he was a Vietnam veteran. “You didn’t talk about being a veteran,” Brinkley said.
Public projection of anger about the war onto veterans themselves had lifelong consequences for those who had served in Vietnam.
Craig Bryan, an Iraq War veteran and psychologist at The Ohio State University, urges Americans to separate the government decisions and the troops. “My hope is that a key lesson learned is to distinguish between political decision-making and military personnel and the importance of treating people with dignity and respect,” he told AARP Veteran Report.
“The lack of support experienced by many veterans of that era interfered with their ability to reintegrate into society, their communities, and their families. Many still feel the scars of those experiences today.”
Once Brinkley learned he shouldn’t publicly discuss being a veteran, that transferred into remaining silent about it even with his family.
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