Homecoming: The Impact on Nebraska Veterans

What’s the impact of a homecoming on a soldier – even decades after he or she returns from war?  NET News reports on the effect not just war can have on veterans, but also the way they were treated when they returned home from war. 

We come home, people were throwing rocks at us, beer bottles, cans, spitting at us, calling us baby killers, women killers.  We was – we was treated worse than you’d treat dirt.
Ed Reinhardt / Vietnam War Veteran

From World War II veterans to those returning from more modern conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, those homecomings changed through the years as did our understanding of the impact they can have on veterans. 

I think it is the potential kicking off to something that could be very good for them and restorative.  Or if done badly, could cause pain for decades.
Dr. Krista Krebs / PTSD Specialist

NET News talks with veterans from different wars, as well as military experts and a psychologist to examine the issue.  We also look at a second homecoming some 60 years in the making for Nebraska Korean War veterans. 

I truly cannot remember other than maybe a very few of my friends and my family that really recognized that I’d been gone.  And no one, I can just tell you, absolutely no one said, “Lloyd, thank you for your service.”
Lloyd Hinkley / Lincoln Veteran