Congress seeks national recognition for Vietnam vets
By Bill Thompson
Staff writer
Published: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Ben Crosby recalls how gracious people were when he came home from his first combat tour in Vietnam. It was 1967, and as the young Army major, clad in uniform, passed through the civilian world, women hugged him, his drinks in airport bars came free and people were appreciative.
"It was really kind of nice," said Crosby, and not unlike the warm welcome contemporary veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan receive.
The second time, not so much. In 1971, Crosby, still a major, came home from a second year of fighting the Viet Cong. He was ordered not to wear his uniform outside the confines of his post. The risk from anti-war protesters, he was told, was too great.
"Nobody ever did anything to me," said Crosby, an Ocala resident. "But when I look back on it, it was pretty damn bad: a soldier told to put on civilian clothes because his countrymen were mistreating him."
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