LITTLE RIVER -- What was supposed to be a welcome home for a serviceman returning from Afghanistan turned into the surprise of a lifetime for a group of Vietnam veterans.
James Young drove from Gainesville, GA for the event. "It's a camaraderie that only veterans can experience," said Young. "Whether I know these men or not."
Young and more than twenty other veterans from the Army's 25th Infantry during the Vietnam War gathered in Little River, SC Friday.
"A lot of these men never received a proper welcome home," said Kris Tourtelette. He also was a member of the 25th Infantry during the Vietnam War and now runs the Operation Welcome Home Resource Center in Little River.
"It was not good. So many were spit on. We were called all kinds of names."
To give these men a proper welcome home, Tourtelette told the group they were welcoming someone else home, when instead he surprised them with an event to honor them.
"I hope they've gotten some closure from it," said Young. "It's been a long time coming. Myself, I got closure a long time ago. But I know a lot of them didn't."
