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>> 183 7 Coming Home When Second Lieutenant Edmund Krekorian returned home from Korea, the city of Seattle welcomed him and others on the troop ship in grand style. Marine Corsairs escorted the ship to the harbor, flying off in victory rolls as a happy chorus of boat horns and whistles joined the shouts of hundreds of people gathered on the pier. There, Miss Seattle waited with a bouquet of flowers to meet the men as a band played “The Star Spangled Banner.”1 Also returning by way of Seattle, Russell Rodda vividly remembers the beautiful girls in bathing suits, one of whom stopped him on the gangplank to kiss him and thank him for doing his duty.2 Treated to “dancing girls, in net stockings and 12-inch skirts,” 185 Thunderbirds of the Oklahoma 45th scarcely could turn their attention to the crowds tossing confetti and streamers and shouting, “They’re home, they’re home, they’re home!”3 In San Francisco, Anthony De Angelis enjoyed a similar reception. Tug boats greeted the men with water salutes and, once they docked, civilians tossed beer up to them while WACs boarded to carry their duffle bags off the ship.4 Welcomed home in grand style, these Korean War veterans “felt good for the first time in a 184 > 185 If someone asked us what happened overseas, we should go ahead and tell him.”17 Thomas Shay attended classes for two weeks “just to know how to act, how to talk to people . . . [and] the words to say. . . . They told you . . . how to pass the potatoes [and] how to treat a lady.”18 The military made available to former prisoners of war booklets like “Welcome Back!” and “What Has Happened since 1950” to explain their responsibilities upon returning and to catch them up on events they missed while in captivity.19 Aside from this, the military offered little by way of debriefing or therapy to men rotating out of the war zone, instead filling their hours with red tape, physical exams, and reminders that they still belonged to the service. Men and women once again began policing the area, serving on KP duty, picking up trash, and drilling.20 Eventually, unless doctors determined that they needed further evaluation at a hospital or rehabilitation center, these new war veterans received their discharge or leave, pay, and a ticket home.21 Once released, most returnees could not wait to celebrate the end of their war. On the way to the train station or airport, they stopped off at bars and restaurants, ready to treat themselves to a first-class meal or cocktail. If they got lucky, some civilian would slap them on the back and say, “We’re glad you’re back” and “Let me buy you a drink.” Ordering steak, martinis, ice cream, and whatever else they fancied, veterans lived it up until time to depart for home.22 A few continued the festivities along the way. Changing trains in Chicago, Frank Almy and a few pals stopped by a bar where the owner told the servicemen “our money wasn’t any good there. We had all we could eat and drink on the house.”23 Men aboard a seven-car troop train headed for Ft. Sill began drinking heavily at the outset and stopped the train en route to purchase more liquor.24 For a while, excited returnees just wanted to say, “Hey, here I am. Come on America, here I am, ready or not.” They didn’t “think about the incidentals” that came with being back in the States because “for right now I’m home! . . . There is no place like home.”25 Very quickly, however, it became apparent just how little thought civilians had given the war. At a restaurant near Camp Carson, Colorado, Robert Baken told the waitress he had been in Korea. Bewildered, she asked, “Korea, where’s that at?” He realized then that “half the civilians in the United States didn’t know [where] Korea was at, and the other half didn’t care where it was at.”26 Rotating out of a MASH in Korea, Catherine Neville found resonance in the words of a friend stationed stateside: “The saddest part of this for you is nobody knows you’ve been away or where you’ve been. You’ll know that when you get home. Nobody will notice it.” Upon her return, Neville “just went back to duty someplace,” as if the war never happened.27 Indeed...

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