Wolfpack Wednesday #17: The Forgotten Generation — Vietnam Veterans and the Debt We Still Owe

WOLFPACK WEDNESDAY | ALPHA VI BATTALION | ISSUE #17

The Forgotten Generation: Vietnam Veterans and the Debt We Still Owe

No one fights alone. Remember the fallen. Support the living. Preserve the lessons. Strengthen the Pack.

They were drafted or they enlisted, most of them barely eighteen years old, and they went to a war that the country was already arguing about before they even landed in-country.

They came home to airports where they were told to change into civilian clothes before leaving the terminal so they would not be recognized. They were called names by people their own age. They were treated as symbols of a policy they did not make and a war they did not start. The country that sent them did not know how to receive them.

Vietnam veterans are in their 70s and 80s now. The youngest of them are approaching 70. They are still dealing with Agent Orange. They are still dying from cancers and conditions directly linked to their service. And a significant number of them never fully processed what happened to them because the culture around them never gave them permission to.

This Wolfpack Wednesday is about them.

What They Carried Home

Vietnam veterans came home to a veteran support infrastructure that barely existed in the way it does today. The concept of PTSD was not formally recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until 1980. For the decade between homecoming and that recognition, veterans who were clearly struggling were told they had character problems, substance abuse issues, or simply could not handle civilian life.

The VA in the 1970s and early 1980s was underfunded and overwhelmed. Many Vietnam veterans made a single attempt to get help, encountered a system that was not ready for them, and never came back. Decades of untreated trauma followed.

Agent Orange exposure added a physical dimension that took even longer to acknowledge. The VA's presumptive conditions list for Agent Orange has been expanding for decades and is still not complete. Veterans who filed claims in the 1970s and 1980s were often denied. Some of them are now in their final years, still waiting for recognition of conditions they developed from chemicals the military directed them to operate near.

What We Owe Them

A welcome home that is fifty years late is still worth giving.

If you encounter a Vietnam veteran, the words are simple. Welcome home. Thank you for your service. That is it. You do not need to have an opinion about the war. You do not need to understand the politics. You need to acknowledge that a person went when their country called and came home to something they did not deserve.

Many Vietnam veterans have never heard those words in sincerity. For some of them, hearing it now still means something.

Beyond individual acknowledgment, the debt is also practical. Vietnam veterans with service-connected conditions should have access to every benefit they are entitled to. Many do not because they stopped trying decades ago. If you know a Vietnam veteran who has never filed a VA claim or who was denied years ago, encourage them to try again. The presumptive conditions list has expanded dramatically. The rules changed in their favor. They deserve to know that.

Resources

• VA Agent Orange Benefits: va.gov
• Vietnam Veterans of America: vva.org
• VA Benefits Hotline: 1-800-827-1000
• Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988 then press 1

No one fights alone.

Welcome them home. It is never too late.

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