As thousands of Vietnam veterans made the annual pilgrimage to Howard County, there was a sense Thursday of belonging and the opportunity to expunge the ghosts of the past.

As one veteran shouted, “The head of the country may be in Washington, D.C.; the heart is in Indiana.”

Susan Haacke, 61, a Wisconsin veteran who served in Vietnam in 1969, described the annual gathering as one of the best for veterans of that military conflict.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Haacke explained her assignment in Vietnam was to prepare those soldiers who died for transport to the U.S.

She enlisted in 1967 and served three years on active duty.

“I had moved to New York, and my brother was drafted in 1967 and was going to Vietnam,” Haacke said. “‘I’ll be right there’ and went to the recruiter that day.”

Haacke has attended the annual reunion for 26 years and commented it gets bigger every year. Haacke said when the other veterans learn she served in Vietnam, there are lots of hugs and kisses.

“The healing is the main thing,” she said of the return to Kokomo every year. “When I came home from Vietnam, I was literally picked up and thrown into a cab in San Francisco. The stewardess won’t let me on the plane. She said no baby killer was getting on her plane.

“I told her, ‘Baby killer?’ Haacke continued, “‘There is a 17-year-old prisoner that was killing my men.’”

Haacke said she suffered a nervous breakdown 15 years after leaving the U.S. Army because she kept seeing faces.

“My daughter didn’t want to know what was going on,” she explained. “I never talked about Vietnam for 15 years. I was afraid to tell anybody.”

Haacke said she believes members of the military are getting more support today because of the way Vietnam veterans were treated.

“I think a lot of people are guilty over how we were treated,” she said. “When people want to tell me, welcome home, I don’t want to hear it from them. I’m bitter about it.”

Jim Logsdon, 60, served with the 9th Infantry Division and lost both legs when he stepped on a buried 155 mm artillery shell while his unit was setting up for a night ambush in 1970.

Logsdon, an Attica resident, has been attending the annual reunion for 25 years.

“It’s the camaraderie and talking about old times,” he said of his annual trip to Kokomo. “I’m not surprised at how it has grown. It will continue to grow as the Iraq and Afghanistan troops start coming.”

Logsdon believes the nation’s patriotism is higher today because of the Vietnam veterans.

“We know what they are going through,” he said. “We reach out and treat them with the respect they deserve.”

Logsdon said he was treated well when he returned from Vietnam. He said the Veterans Administration has been good in providing him with assistance.

“I’ve done all right,” he said with a smile while seated in a wheelchair greeting fellow veterans. “War is a hazard. I knew that going in. I just carried on.”

Logsdon said he has been around the world twice since his time in the military. He took part in a welcome-home parade in Australia and met with veterans in Indonesia.

“Veterans from any country understand where you’ve been and welcome you,” he said.

Massachusetts veteran Victor Bailey, who served in Vietnam with the 184th Ordinance Company in 1970 and 1971, was making his first visit to the annual Howard County event.

“A friend of mine met another veteran on Pal Talk and decided to meet here,” he said. “I’m amazed. This is going to be a ritual for me.”

Bailey said he had a low draft number in the lottery and decided to enlist, hoping to avoid a tour of duty in Vietnam.

“I’d move here in a heartbeat,” he said of the Kokomo area. “The people are so nice. I can’t remember a place where I felt like I really belonged until we got here on Wednesday.”

• Ken de la Bastide is the Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor. He can be reached at (765) 454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com