MY WELCOME HOME FROM VIETNAM  NOV.18TH 1969

"The Warrior"


On November 18th it will be the 47th anniversary date of my homecoming
from a year long tour of duty defending the freedom of South Vietnam's
citizens from Nov. 1968 - Nov. 1969, we had been kept completely in the
dark about all the antiwar protests back at home while I was over there.
We were surprised that we were held over up in Saigon for a couple of
days before being able to leave there to return home to the USA. When
we finally landed at Travis AFB, California it was 2:00 AM and we were
taken over to the chow hall to be fed before we were all processed in
and were issued our new Dress Blue uniforms with all of our approved
service and combat ribbons that were awarded to us for our service in
South Vietnam. We were happy to be back in the USA and we were joking
with each other and someone said hey with our dark suntans and our new
dress uniforms we looked very sharp and that we all should party some
in town before flying to our own hometowns. We went out the main gate
and crossed the street where the bus stop was located where we would
catch the bus that would take us all to San Francisco and the airport
to catch our own individual flights home for our 30 day leaves before
reporting to our new bases that we were assigned to go to across the
country after our leaves were over. We thought it was strange that we
had come home in the very early hours of the morning but we found
out real fast what the reason for this was about, as a few airman
and I were crossing the road to the bus stop three beautiful young
ladies approached us and one looked like she was ready to deliver a
baby at almost any moment and her two friends were walking on either
side of her as if they were supporting her as she walked. They came
right up to me smiling and asked if I had just come home from Vietnam
and when I said yes about an hour ago and without any hesitation at
all she pulled out a container she had behind her back and dumped it
down the front of my new uniform and she screamed at me as she held
her stomach yelling that this was one little baby your not going to
kill you bastards and called us murders, then we smelled the ungodly
smell of the liquid she had dumped on me and it was by far the worse
thing that I had ever smelled before and I totally lost it and I went
into a combat defense state of mind and I only saw an enemy attacking
me. It took all of the other airman with me to keep me from reaching
those crazy morons, the Security Police at the main gate and two local
city police officers quickly arrested these crazy protesters and two
of the Air Force Security Police took me back onto the base to get me
cleaned up and for me to change my clothes. It had turned out that they
had done this sort of thing before with others who were returning home
from the war and she wasn't expecting a baby at all, it was a pillow she
had stuffed under her clothes. They were all then sent to jail for the
assault on us as we had crossed the road to the bus stop and I was then
forced to wear a pair of my combat jungle uniforms home instead of my
new dress blue uniform because they didn't have another dress uniform
my size so I was told to fly home in my jungle uniform and I'd have to
go to the Air Force base by my home while on leave to get a new dress
blue uniform. While I waited at the airport I was getting alot of folks
staring at me and some were giving me very disgusting looks as well, I
couldn't wait to get the hell out of California. It was later determined
that the liquid that those girls had throw on me was old blood they got
from a butcher shop and had let sit out for awhile before using it on me,
this was my "Welcome Home Airman" from my own war in South Vietnam in
1969 from these California morons. When I finally did arrived home later
that day in Detroit, Michigan, I was met by my own family and some of my
friends and the first thing they all asked me was why was I wearing my
combat uniform home instead of my dress blue uniform and I told them it
was a very long story and that I just didn't want to talk about it right
then that I just wanted to get home and take a long hot shower and sleep
for a few days straight. A few days later in the week my hometown had a
very nice and proper welcome home dinner for me at the local VFW post to
honor me for all of my own efforts to help out some local Catholic nuns
to save the lives of about 60 orphans while I was over there serving in
Vietnam and thanking me for writing to my hometown mayor and our council
asking if the city and our local veterans groups could possibly conduct
a food and clothing drive and if they could to please send whatever they
could collect to me in Vietnam and I would then get it down to the nuns
at the orphanage for the kids. They'd all done a great job, better than
anything that I had ever dreamed of and they thanked me for caring about
all those children while I was over there defending South Vietnam from
the communist soldiers and the Viet Cong, but it was I who thanked them
for they did all the work, I just wrote the letter and asked the question
"Can you help me out Mr. Mayor?" Some people have tried over the years to
rewrite the actual history of what happened over there in South Vietnam,
but they were never there and we were there facing all the dangers. but
some will still say to this day that none of us were ever spit on at all
or that we were never assaulted in any type of manner at all. Well I was
there in Vietnam and when I had returned home I was thankful that I had
survived it all and I was just one of the airmen who were attacked by all
those crazy California protesters when I came home from my war in the
early morning hours of Nov.18th 1969 and that is something I will never
forget or will I ever forgive those protesters for what they did until
my dying day. I know I am suppose to forgive and forget as taught to us
by the bible and God above and hopefully someday I can be a much better
person than I am now. God and his Guardian Angels protected me while I
served in that terrible war and there were many times that I feel that
I should not have survived some of the mortar and rocket attacks and I
feel that I was blessed by God that I did survive it regardless of how
impossible it had seemed at the time. I have a very strong faith in my
God and I believe that is why I had survived my year in that very long
and terrifying war trying to help defend the people of South Vietnam.




Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior & Survivor Of The Vietnam War
(November 1968 - November 1969)
























































A VERY HEARTFELT AND SPECIAL SONG THAT I CAN REALLY RELATE TO FROM MY TIME SERVING MY NATION AS A WARRIOR DEFENDING FREEDOM FOR ALL.

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