Vietnam Vet Returns Home From Iraq Duty|ABC 7 News

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Vietnam Vet Returns Home From Iraq Duty

posted 3:34 pm Mon December 24, 2007 - Ft. Hood, Texas

tags: vet • iraq • vietnam • holiday

First he served in Vietnam, then gave up his day job years later to go to the front line in Iraq. It's a very special Christmas for Lt. Col. Bruce Allen who made it home for the holidays, but his second homecoming was more than just a Christmas gift.

ABC 7 News - Vietnam Vet Returns Home From Iraq Duty

Lt. Col. Allen served 15 months in Iraq with the First Calvary Division, but it was his second war as he served in Vietnam when he was 22. "My job was in infantry as an infantry platoon leader."

He came home in 1970, at the height of the anti-war movement. "There was of course no reception at the airport. No band, no waving flags no nothing at all."

To avoid ridicule and taunts many soldiers faced, Allen changed out of his fatigues before he left the airport. "We all immediately tried to find something that we could wear to get out of our uniforms because basically we didn't want to be seen in our uniforms."

That memory, the nation's lack of appreciation for his service, stayed with him. Sarah Allen, Bruce's wife, recalls, "He was disappointed in the people back in the United States because they were not receptive to the soldiers coming back home from Vietnam."

When the U.S. Invaded Iraq, Allen saw a chance. He gave up a job selling real estate in Florida and went back to war. "I wanted a better closure to my military career than I received when I came home from Vietnam."

Allen celebrated his 60th birthday in Iraq with his 32-year-old son Jason, an Army Captain. No longer an infantryman, Allen trained young snipers. Many of the soldiers Allen served with in Iraq weren't even born when he was tromping through the jungle of Vietnam.

"They want to hear the comparison about what's going on here and what we did then and the fact that we weren't so successful in Vietnam and ended up pulling out. In this case we feel that we're going to go home with our heads held high."

Allen returned just in time for the Christmas holiday after more than a year in Iraq to the hero's welcome he has been dreaming of for nearly 40 years.

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