Guest Writer – Tom Keating; Welcomed Home

Tom Keating is a writer and veteran of the Vietnam War. His memoir of his military experiences in the US Army, “Yesterday’s Soldier, a Passage From Prayer to the Vietnam War” is the story of his journey from Infantry Officer Candidate (OCS) to conscientious objector in Vietnam and is available on Amazon. His latest book, “Elephants, Secrets and Submarines, A Story Collection,” will be available in mid-November on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Excerpts from his memoir have appeared in national anthologies such as “War Stories,” an anthology edited by Sean Davis, and a story “Shakedown” published by Warrior Writers Boston in their book “Complacency Kills,” “Dispatches,” the magazine of the Military Writers of America, “The VVA Veteran” the magazine of the Vietnam Veterans of America and “0-Dark-Thirty,” the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project. His fiction works, “The Little Black Rose” appeared in the January “Microlit Almanac,” from Birch Bark Editing, and “REMF” appears in Wrath-Bearing Tree January issue. His most recent work, a story about his Honor Flight to Washington, DC, “My Honor Flight” appeared in the Spring edition of “Dispatches.”
“My Honor Flight”, “The Weekend Pass”, “Christmas 1969”, and “A Convoy for an Elephant” have all appeared earlier on this blog.

Please enjoy Tom’s story.

Welcomed Home
By Tom Keating

Tom at the opening dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial

The first time someone came up to me and said “Welcome Home” was in Washington D.C. in 1982, during the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I was covering the event as a freelance journalist for Boston area local newspapers.

Vietnam veterans, dressed in camouflaged fatigues and wearing “boonie hats” were shaking hands with other Vets and saying, “Welcome Home, brother.” I was dressed casually, with my Vietnam medals pinned to my tweed jacket.

“Welcome Home” became the greeting of choice over the next four days. Everyone was finally celebrating and recognizing our service in that unpopular war, eight years after it ended. The common phrase people use today “Thank you for your service” seems so artificial, cold, matter of fact. “Welcome Home” has warmth and affection. It honors all Veterans who deployed and left their home to serve in our armed forces.

Home to a Veteran is the place where he or she longs to be while deployed. Home is both real and ideal. The Veteran knows it’s there; it is real. But from far away, in a strange place, it shines with the light of heaven, a memory of love, laughter, friends, fun.

When I was on perimeter guard duty in a hot, damp bunker in Vietnam, home meant being with my brother and sisters, Mom, and Dad, sitting and watching television, laughing and being together. Or swimming in Long Island Sound, talking to pretty girls on the beach, sweating at football practice, and going to McDonald’s afterwards, buying two hamburgers, a Coke, and fries for ninety cents.

My reverie was selective, omitting anything or anyone that was negative. Home was all good. No fights with my brother over what to watch on the television or getting “grounded” for accidentally starting a marsh fire near our home with my homemade rockets. A fiction of course, but a necessary one. It kept me hopeful.

Soldiers in Vietnam called home “back in the world.” For us, the world was real life, the war we were fighting was another planet. Sometimes a piece of home reached us. A letter received at mail call would take me back home for a while. Care packages filled with cookies and other goodies from home led to celebration and sharing with other soldiers so all could get a taste of what waited for us “back in the world.”

The ideal of our dreams faded when we returned. People at home were tired of the war and the nightly body counts on television news, and anti-war demonstrations were in full bloom. Young people shouted curses at many of us at airports or bus stations when we returned. Their angry shouts filled our ears. We were easy to notice in the green Class A uniforms many of us wore. Except for our families and close friends, no one noticed our return.

That’s what made the words “Welcome Home” at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial so special. Since that day in Washington, I’ve continued to say “Welcome Home” to fellow Vietnam Vets, and to all Vets I meet.

Tom and his wife celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary

When I came home and my plane landed in Boston in September 1970, my girlfriend was there, waiting for me, wearing the same yellow pantsuit she wore when we said goodbye a year ago. We hugged each other tightly, just like they do in the movies. I was back in the world, and that was my “Welcome Home.”

We have been married fifty-three years. I am home.

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Tom Keating’s story collection will be released in Mid-November on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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