Vietnam vets give what they never got

By Edward Colimore, Inquirer [Philadelphia] Staff Writer

For the last year, they saw the Iraq war up close; some fought gun battles with the enemy, and all were far from home and the comforts of family.

Then, after a marathon flight, the troops were back again yesterday, tired, excited, hungry, and still loaded down with their M-16s and military gear.

They did not expect anyone to notice.

But at the journey's end, Michael Engi and fellow Vietnam veterans were waiting. They are always there for the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

At 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning - any time of the day or night - it does not matter. They drop what they are doing and head to Fort Dix to greet the soldiers and offer warm handshakes.

As 150 troops piled off buses at the Mobilization and Demobilization Briefing Center, more than a dozen Vietnam veterans formed a receiving line to give a welcome they did not receive decades ago. One veteran played the haunting melody of "The Minstrel Boy" on the bagpipes.

"Welcome home! Welcome back!" a beaming Engi said over and over as the soldiers moved past him.

Many lit up with smiles. Some teared up. America's newest veterans - scores of them from Pennsylvania, Delaware and other states - were surprised and touched by the gesture.

One of them took the American flag patch from his uniform and handed it to a Vietnam-era veteran, Dexter Hawkins of Browns Mills, as a way of saying thanks.

"They become overwhelmed with emotion," said Engi, 59, of Bordentown, president of New Jersey Chapter 899 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "They're just glad to see someone understands. You see handshakes and hugs. They can't thank us enough."

Army Reserve Sgt. Tim Simon, 22, of Franklin, Pa., who just returned from al-Qayyarrah, Iraq, and who serves in the 298th Transportation Company, said: "This means a lot because of what they went through. It feels good."

The Vietnam veterans have been going to Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base for more than three years to offer encouragement and advice. They said they felt an emotional kinship with the troops forged by the shared experience of war.

But something cathartic happened along the way. Engi and his comrades said they got as much from the meetings as the troops did, maybe more.

"By welcoming them home, we were getting welcomed home, too, and we never had that," said Engi, a former Burlington County sheriff's officer who organized the welcome-home events and recruited other veterans. "Every time we go out there, it's the same thing. We get as much from these guys as we give them. It's better than any parade we could have ever had."

Hawkins, who served in the Air Force from 1966 to 1989, added: "If I had a son who went to war, it would tear me up [if he returned without a greeting]. I came home and was treated badly. It just wasn't right."

Curt Anderson, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War who played the bagpipes yesterday, said the welcome-home ceremonies were "a bit like closure for us.

"It's good for both sides," Anderson, 53, of Willingboro said. "It's giving something we never got. It helps make you whole."

Tom Jellick, 75, of Wrightstown, the second vice president of Chapter 899 and the group's chaplain, said he recalled "how lonesome it was when I left for Vietnam and how bad the reception was when I got back."

An Air Force tech sergeant, he also recalled loading aircraft with ammunition and unloading bodies. "That bothered me more than anything else," Jellick said. "Some of the bags had only pieces and the blood was leaking out.

"So when I first started coming out here [to welcome the troops home], I was emotional. I cried. They got their welcome, and I didn't get mine. Some folks would get so emotional they'd have to walk around the corner. Now, we're pros at it. It's like having a treatment at the psychiatrist. I feel I'm doing something, and I'm feeling better."

Moments before the buses arrived yesterday, Engi asked his fellow Vietnam veterans "to raise your hands if you want to reenlist. They're looking for a few good men." Then buses began pulling up. "Here they come," he said.

Engi recruited veterans in Chapter 899 for arrival and departure ceremonies at Fort Dix and McGuire. The veterans also spend hours at the medical hold unit, where soldiers are treated for minor injuries as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. They bring chili and other food and talk and play pool or cards with the troops.

"I wanted them to know someone cares," said Engi, a former sergeant who served with an artillery unit in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Engi said he and other veterans tell the troops what worked for them, especially those affected by trauma disorder. Each group that arrives is different, depending on the role they had, and the levels of combat they experienced.

"We get standing ovations from the troops all the time," he said. "We don't want them to be forgotten. Somebody has to speak up for them."

Army Sgt. Emmanuel Maxwell, 25, a member of the 24th Quartermaster unit from Fort Lewis, Wash., felt buoyed after the reception.

"It's always good to get a welcome home. I wasn't expecting it."

Army Maj. Marla Seeman, 48, of Harrington, Del., a member of the Delaware National Guard 198th Signal Battalion from New Castle, Del., said she was "honored that they [Vietnam veterans] would do this for us. It was wonderful."

One soldier probably had the best perspective of any. Sgt. Maj. Robert Wilson, 57, of Bear, Del., had fought in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and remembered "going over and coming back by myself.

"I turned 20 in Vietnam and 57 in Iraq," he said. "It couldn't be any better than to be welcomed by these guys. I hope they get what they want out of this. There is a different feeling today than there was during Vietnam."

H/t to Doc E. (for those of you who were wondering if he had a serious side)

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About a month ago, I aired out part of my brain, and had a brief exchange with Two-Niner in the comments about the Company "kids" -- the children of those guys we lost. Some "adopted" us after visiting our site, some just came once or twice to ask The Question and a few came because we were a link with a face on a fading photograph...

"It's giving something we never got. It helps make you whole."

Add our Company Kids to a million children who are also now grown to adulthood. We gave the Kids something to help heal their souls and they gave us something to help make us whole...

Thanks, Obie. And thank you, Kids.