Sometimes surviving just isn't good enough. A group of Knoxville, Tennessee veterans who made it through the violence of the Vietnam War headed back to the small Southeast Asian country on Dec. 1 for a sense of closure. Some wanted to experience the new Vietnam, while others were looking for a chance to put their past behind them.
Maybe what was most important to the men, however, was finally getting the welcome they deserved all those decades ago when they returned to Knoxville on Tuesday. Friends, family and members of both the Patriot Riders and American Legion Riders cheered Joseph Spencer and the others on as they disembarked their plane.
"This is a welcome home 47 years later," Spencer told his Local 8 station.
Bill Robinson was among the 14 returning veterans. Robinson was taken prisoner in North Vietnam after his helicopter was shot down in the middle of a rescue mission. For the next seven years he was a prisoner of war. Last week's trip was the first time he'd stepped foot in the country since.
"I would be doing a disservice to the 58,000 who gave their life if I was unhappy," he told ABC 6. "Seeing their smiling faces of the Vietnamese and realizing we weren't overrun by English speakers, so that meant they were able to make it on their own. That makes us proud because we went over there independent and now they're independent and doing quite well."
Johnny Hurst, another Vietnam veteran, agreed. "You can see that the Vietnam people are better off. They've got better. Everything is better for them. They treated us good and made us feel welcomed."
The group paid for the trip themselves, but organizers hope that in the future enough money can be raised to give all veterans who wish to return to Vietnam a chance to do so.