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Dennis Rucker and Steve Parsons served in Vietnam. But after that service, the veterans’ differing perspectives took them on two paths with little similarity.

Rucker went on to join the Army Reserves and later the National Guard, and he currently works as the veterans services officer for the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Parsons, meanwhile, came home with PTSD and has opted to close the military chapter of his life, for the most part.

What the two have in common is how they’re grateful to see the way public opinion and treatment of Vietnam veterans have transitioned over the years.

“I was proud to serve in Vietnam, but I had my buddies and stuff that didn’t like to mention that they were in ‘Nam,” Rucker said last week in reference to current attitudes on Veterans Day, which is Sunday. “Now, everybody’s proud they served in Vietnam, because of the patriotism, and the way that they treat soldiers differently.”

In the decades since the Vietnam War, both men said that they’ve seen a significant increase in the amount of respect and recognition shown to veterans.

“Everybody, whether they were in Vietnam or in any of the other wars, we all deserve respect,” Parsons said. “Because all of us that have done combat time did something that most of us didn’t want to do. But we did it. We did it because that’s what we were told-I won’t say asked, because they didn’t ask us, they told us.”

Dealing with war

Parsons recalled that when he first came back from Vietnam, people would refer to him and other veterans as “baby killers.”

“They were still at that stage where it was very vocal. You can think what you want, but there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t need to be vocal about,” Parsons said. “It was just part of life back then. Everybody had their own opinions. Some were just more vocal than others.”

Parsons, who spent his childhood in southern California and lived in Oregon until a few years ago, currently resides at the Prairie Healthcare Community in Woonsocket. He’s received full disability benefits from the Army and uses a wheelchair, but the two are unrelated.

PTSD, depression and anxiety, which comprise his disability, are the byproducts of his time in the Army. His physical challenges, however, came first from a fall down some stairs that led to 13 stitches and nerve damage and later from cellulitis.

“Never got hurt once overseas, but when you come back to the states, eventually, it’s going to catch up with you. And it did with me,” he said.

For Parsons, who said he’s seen the number of civilians – supportive of military action or not – who thank veterans has increased year by year and is now higher than he’s ever seen it; staying up to date on military happenings is not essential to honoring those involved.

“I don’t stay up with the wars. They tell me there’s a war going on, more power to them, because I could care less. I did my time, and the guys that have done their time, we all are due the respect that we have coming to us,” he said. “Everybody has their own way of dealing with war. Some of us can shovel it out, some of us shovel it in.”

While Parsons says the U.S. should not have been involved in Vietnam and decries much of what he experienced, he described himself as “one of those gung-ho Army guys” before he served, and he even applied for an extension when his year of service was up.

He said that for him, Veterans Day is important because it’s the one day that everyone has to stop and think, even a little, about those who served, whether they made it back or not.

“They deserve to be recognized, just as all the guys that didn’t come back in a vertical position should be recognized,” Parsons said. “And they are being recognized, more and more.”

A culture of honor

During the United States’ involvement in Vietnam, a conflict for which the draft was implemented, Rucker volunteered. He was inspired to do so by an extensive list of military family members: a grandfather who served in World War I, an uncle who was in World War II, a father who fought in Korea and numerous cousins and friends who also went to Vietnam.

Following his three years overseas, Rucker said that family members were also just about the only ones who welcomed him home.

When he joined the National Guard and served in Desert Storm, the public response was dramatically different, and soldiers today are honored in the way he wishes Vietnam veterans had been.

“When we came back from Vietnam, we didn’t have a good welcome home. We were not appreciated. But coming back from Desert Storm, that was 180 degrees of difference,” he said. “People were shaking your hands and everything, instead of cursing at you.”

For about 20 years, Rucker has been the veterans services officer for the Yankton Sioux tribe. Previously, he was an elected tribal official for about 10 years, and he always planned to work with veterans. Because many of the veterans he works with are scattered around rural areas in Charles Mix County, he works with the county VSO to reach out to them and make sure they’re aware of the available benefits and services.

Rucker is also a member of organizations that are in the process of trying to find funding for a monument to Native American code talkers.

“They talked their language to confuse the enemy. That’s the one language they couldn’t decipher in World War I and World War II,” he said. “They broke all the codes except the Native American languages.”

Rucker said that although most people think of the code talkers as being Navajo, the Yankton Sioux have been specifically identified as one of only a handful of code talker groups that existed in World War I. To honor the contributions of the code talkers, including his own grandmother’s brother, Rucker meets regularly in Pierre with other tribal VSOs from around the state.

The proposed monument would sit on a plot of land donated by the capital. Rucker said he doesn’t know exactly how much of the more than $500,000 needed has been raised in the years since the effort was undertaken, but that it’s not enough to complete the project.

Rucker said that to this day, the Native American culture is appreciative of veterans and values the concept of serving the country.

“Our people are still ready to fight for the country, like today, the young people volunteer, because there’s no draft anymore,” he said.