Local Vietnam vets differ on Saturday’s homecoming
By Mary Yost
Almost four decades after their return from the war, Vietnam veterans will be honored with a homecoming celebration at the Charlotte Motor Speedway today.
For Carl McCormick, who returned from Vietnam in 1972, this event is a “slap in the face” that he refuses to attend. For veterans Bennie Kidd and Levie Strickland, this event will help bring “closure” to this part of their lives.
McCormick is a Burlington native who entered the Vietnam War in September 1970 as a military mechanic. He remained there for 19 months until he returned to North Carolina in April 1972. When he arrived in San Francisco, McCormick took off his uniform, put it in a locker and threw away the key. He was disappointed by the war and the government’s “lies,” he said.
“I was naïve and I believed in this country at that time,” he said. “The more I found out about the truth, the more cynical I became.”
Upon returning home, McCormick says he had horrific nightmares and sometimes could not sleep for days. Eight years later, he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. McCormick continues to attend therapy sessions every other week to treat his PTSD, which has impacted his life every day since he left Vietnam.
McCormick will not attend the Vietnam Veterans Homecoming Celebration, which will take place in Concord. The event is a tribute to the more than 216,000 North Carolina residents who served in the Vietnam War.
“Are we going to be 21 years old again if we go down there? What’s it going to do for us?” he asked. “It’s a front to hide the political ambitions of some people and it’s not going to make any difference to us.”
McCormick returned from the Vietnam War 40 years ago, making the celebration about 14,600 days too late, he said.
“I don’t have a future now — I’m 62 years old,” he said. “I would rather they use this effort to help current war veterans and let them have a future.”
Support for the Celebration
Kidd is looking forward to attending the event. He served in Vietnam from November 1969 to November 1970 and, despite being drafted, he remains proud of his service. A native of Lynchburg, Va., Kidd now lives in Burlington.
Snide remarks were shouted at Kidd and he was called a “baby killer” when he arrived in San Francisco’s airport after his service. These sentiments continued until Kidd returned home to Virginia. He never received a homecoming celebration — as did troops from different wars — and arrived in Lynchburg by himself.
“You just came home like you were flying a regular flight,” he said.
Kidd took 30 days off from work to adjust to life in the United States. Like many others, he suffered from flashbacks and night terrors. He eventually returned to work at a gas station and entered college to study accounting under the GI Bill.
Even though he has “mixed emotions” about the homecoming celebration, Kidd plans to attend after his wife convinced him that it will help bring him closure.
“You watch other homecoming celebrations and you feel left out,” he said. These feelings often cause him to question his service. Kidd hopes this homecoming will close the door on these feelings and help others understand the sacrifices soldiers made in this war effort.
Levie Strickland agrees and plans to attend the event.
“We never did receive the recognition that we should have,” Strickland said. “It doesn’t really change everything but it’s a good gesture.”
Strickland returned from Vietnam in 1966 and had a hard time adjusting to life in Alamance County.
“I was really bitter when I came back here because of the way people treated us,” he said, referring to the negative images portrayed by the media and the harsh words uttered against the veterans.
Strickland received help five years ago when he attended a reunion for his division. Many of the men suffered from the same problems and encouraged Strickland to seek help for his PTSD. Like McCormick, he continues to attend therapy sessions at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham.
Ed Riddle a different perspective on the homecoming celebration because he returned from Vietnam during the earlier stages of the war. Riddle served as a member of the Army Security Agency from February 1962 to January 1965 and was one of the first men from Alamance County to serve in Vietnam. He had a peaceful homecoming when he returned to North Carolina in December 1963.
“I didn’t get met with mobs that were spitting or cussing,” he said, noting that not as many people were aware of the conflict at that time.
Riddle is an Alamance County native who graduated from then-Elon College in 1968 when he was 28 years old. He will not attend the Vietnam Veterans Homecoming Celebration because he stays in contact with friends from his unit, who will be holding their annual reunion in Charleston, S.C., this year. The homecoming celebration is important because “it’s nice to be recognized,” he said. It will also provide some veterans with closure.
“It will be good for a lot of them who still have problems with the way they were treated when they came back,” he said.
This article was published in The Burlington Times-News on March 31, 2012.
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