Can you describe how you felt coming home from a deployment or combat?

Surreal. Went from Iraq to Walmart in 24 hours. Surreal

Relieved!

After coming home from the first one, I felt a lot of relief because my chain of command and NCO support channel were frequently trying to get me killed and set me up for failure during this deployment. But I also felt out of place because I spent almost the whole deployment isolated from people who actually gave a damn about me and rarely having any kind of fun on my off time. I was either working, trying rest, trying to survive, or in the gym working on my fitness so my chain of command & NCO support channel would have NO REASON to deny me my re-enlistment. So it took a little bit to remember how to have fun when I got back since I wasn't "doing the wrong thing" while deployed like everyone else was doing.

Well, for me it was all good. I didn't have a family to "come" home to. I was single at the time, been divorced for about 4years so I was good. the typical nervousness came with being at a new duty station and how the unit would be run. As I was trained to go to Afghanistan as an Embedded Training Team or Combat Advisor in 06' and came back to be an Instructor/Trainer. It took me a bit to "relax" but it was even quicker for me to get pissed off. And it was mostly the Army National Guard or Active Army teams that did it. And my command made appointments for me at Mental Health. :)

.I'll never forget the great feeling when that plane left the runway in Vietnam headed back to the states hoping that it didn't get shot down leaving the runway. I flew to Seattle and then down to L A to catch a flight east. I was walking through the airport in L A in uniform when a bunch of hippies called me a Baby Killer and spit on my uniform. I informed them that my greatest wish at that point was that I had my M-16 because none of them would ever spit on another GI ever. It took me 20 yrs to put that feeling behind me and I still remember it today. Sometimes I still wonder why I bothered to serve a country with so many people that hate our country today.

One part happy. Another part partly sad. Had Vietnamese personnel under that I had gotten close to. They imparted their fears about what was coming to me. Could understand their fear, but there was nothing I could do for them. Not like I had done while we were there. Most of them were noncombatants but were not going to be spared if their people could not fore stall the North. Had seen what the Communist were capable of. Later found out a few had been interred in "re-education camps". Feel a little selfish because I did not want to stay. Aggravated when Congress cut off their ammunition so they could not defend themselves.

Anxious and curious. Anxious to see family and friends and curious how people would react. I realized everyone is gonna have their thoughts and feelings, but I signed up to do a job and fight for this country. My interpretation was different than theirs but again they weren’t in situations that I was in.

I was a young troop and I worked in Stuttgart with a TS clearance. I was in charge of the headquarters communication site controlling all the nuclear weapons sites in the European theater. I was 19! When I came home I was belittled and made to feel embarrassed by my service. I couldn't get a job in my field and eventually went back into the army in the medical field. This was one of the best things to happen to me.

Hopeless, absolutely no family or family support group in place. Returned to a divorce, court process for child support increase. My unit was not even tracking as I deployed with a different Unit “Augment”. Incompetent CoC, at many levels.

When I returned from Korea in '74 (for discharge from active duty), it was like a great void lay ahead. I felt kind of lost, and out of touch.