They Spit on Him After Vietnam 😡

The speaker shares his motivation for writing his military memoir "Guns Up." Upon returning from Vietnam, he and fellow Marines faced severe hostility from the American public. He describes a specific incident where servicemen were pelted with tomatoes and eggs at their arrival, with military police present—though their stated purpose was protection, they actually prevented Marines from confronting their attackers. At a bar, the speaker encountered a sign reading "no Marines or dogs allowed" and was spat upon by a civilian patron. After he retaliated against the man, police intervened and arrested him. However, during transport to jail, a police officer recognized his Fifth Marines affiliation through a military reference ("Poguey rope") and, showing solidarity, instead drove him to a bus station and released him with bus fare back to El Toro. The speaker indicates his initial motivation for writing the book came from anger and frustration with this treatment. However, he credits a larger purpose emerging from the project: addressing widespread American misconceptions about Marine conduct in Vietnam. People encouraged him to document what Marines were actually doing in the war, as the American public broadly believed false narratives that Marines were killing civilians, particularly women and children.