According
to the article "Scandal of the Heroines of Vietnam," First lieutenant
LYNDA VAN DEVANTER received no hero's welcome after having completed a year in Vietnam. She said the day she got back to the United States,
there was a transit strike in San
Francisco. She
stood on the Oakland
Bridge with her thumb
out, wearing her fatigues and combat boots.
She said:
"Cars
went by, and the looks they gave me were like I was a bug or a disease. A couple of cars stopped. I'd run over to get the ride, and they'd roll
down their windows and spit at me and drive off."
That
was the start of ten years of anguish for LYNDA. She said:
"I had nightmares, and I was unable to function. There were periods of six months where I'd cry
and couldn't stop." (17)
In
a The Washington Post interview she
explained "Every Vietnam veteran was told he was a fool, a real sucker,
for going over there, but for women, it's been even worse. People figure you were either a hooker or a
lesbian if you were a woman in the army in Vietnam.'' (18)
Ms.
DEVANTER also said she returned home to such hostility and accusations that
there was no question of having any pride or receiving any gratitude for what
she had done. (19)
She
also feels the public has a negative stereotype of women veterans. She said:
"They think women veterans are six-feet-two, weigh 240 lbs., and
chew tobacco in their left cheeks. First
of all, that stereotype is irrelevant and inaccurate. Most women veterans are the girl next door,
just as most male veterans are the
boy
next door. We were just patriotic,
idealistic Americans who wanted to help our country.'' (20)
CHRIS
NOEL, the singer, dancer and radio personality, shared LYNDA's anguish on her
return. She said: ``I have walked around paralyzed for 11
years. I functioned on another level. I lost all my self-esteem. When people found I was there, they'd turn
around and walk away. People would ask
stupid questions like ‘Did you kill someone?’ or `Did you have a good time?'”
(21)
According
to SHAD MESHAD, who was a social work / psychology officer with the army in Vietnam, women
veterans were accused of being "whores and dykes because they were women
who had gone to the war." (22)
Worse
than anything else, after having fruits and obscenities thrown at her by the
people at Seattle
airport the day she came home, CHARLOTTE MILLER could never get back to being
close to her father. For several years,
she'd had no contact with her father because she'd been told not to call
him. She said: "To prove my love for him, I cut myself
off from my service friends. I regret
that. People don't care about what
happened in Vietnam,
especially women who haven't experienced it." (23)
Despite
her fellows' indifference, she felt proud of her accomplishment. She said if she had to do it over, she'd go. She explained "I wanted to go. I
volunteered, I went into the military, and I requested to go to Vietnam. It seemed that was a humanitarian thing to
do. If our men were there, the least I
could do is go over and help." (24)
Ms.
DEVANTER feels the only time women veterans were treated equally was when they
were in Vietnam. As is often the situation in war, all social
barriers, whether racial or sexual, were broken down. People in wars become dependent on each other
for survival and therefore the race or sex of their comrades becomes secondary
to the matter of staying alive. (25)
Unlike
other women veterans, actress CHRIS NOEL, CHARLOTTE MILLER, and CATHY GRUMBECK
(26) liked their time in Vietnam. Mrs. MILLER said in a The New York Times interview on March 23, 1981:
"Life over there was so real and in some ways so much easier. There was no such thing as black or white,
male or female. We dealt with each other
as human beings, as friends. We worked
hard, we partied hard,
we
were a unit. A lot of us, when we left,
wished we didn't have to come home."