Then their relationship turned nasty.
All because Blaine Underwood served his country as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War. He put his life on the line, and for that — because she didn’t believe in the cause — she tossed him to the curb like this week’s trash.
Treating a veteran with disrespect is hard to comprehend, especially during a time when we rightfully salute our returning war heroes.
Understanding the Vietnam War, fought 50 years ago, was difficult for this country.
“When I came back, that woman wouldn’t even look at me,” said Underwood, 68, of Middletown, who served in Vietnam from 1966-1969. “She wouldn’t speak to me. As a matter of fact, she never did speak to me again. That was it. I’d see her three, four times a week. Nothing. Would not say a word.”
There was another young man who lived on the same street. He was six months older than Underwood, and when he joined the U.S. Army, he was stationed in Germany. When he returned to Middletown, that same woman threw him a “Welcome Home” party.
Two veterans. One served in Germany, the other Vietnam.
“It made a world of difference to her,” Underwood said. “I will never forget that as long as I live.”
He also won’t forget an Honor Flight he recently took with 108 other veterans, mostly from Vietnam, to Washington, D.C. In one day, they toured many of the national memorial landmarks there, built relationships, and reopened wartime wounds. Underwood remembers visiting the two-acre Vietnam Veterans Memorial, then standing in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
The wall listed 58,191 names when it was completed in 1983; as of May 2015, there were 58,307 names, including eight women.
“It was pretty emotional,” Underwood said while sitting in his Middletown living room. “We went to the wall and I looked up some of my buddies that didn’t make it. I about lost it there.”
Even before Underwood graduated from Monroe High School in 1966, he enlisted in the Marines. He skipped school one day and signed up at the recruiting station in Middletown. He was 19 when he was sent to Vietnam. The same age of many of those who died over there.
“It was just a waste of lives,” he said of the war. “There are 58,000 people on that wall and they’re gone. All the dreams and hopes they had. Gone. It’s a shame. What a waste of human lives. I know sometimes it can’t be avoided, but it’s still a waste.”
On the Honor Flight, he also had the opportunity to meet a Tuskegee Airman, an African-American pilot who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces.
"I shock his hand. It was a privilege to shake that man's hand," Underwood said. "He was a rock star on our flight. Everyone looked up to him."
Throughout the Honor Flight, whether it was the police escort throughout the city or the receptions the veterans received in the airports, Underwood, who worked at Aeronca for 34 years, retiring in 2003, said they were treated “like royalty.”
When the veterans and their chaperones landed at Dayton International Airport around 10 p.m., they were cheered by 1,500 people, many of them waving American flags. Underwood’s wife, Kitty, was among them.
“It was really emotional,” she said. “Brought tears to your eyes. The way they honored them. It made your heart… The guys were crying. I just was amazed. People that didn’t have anyone there, they came to honor the veterans.”
Only one person could have made the reception more memorable: Underwood’s neighbor.
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