This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution and its "Stories from Main Street" initiative. The project is intended to capture Americans' impressions and stories about their small-town and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, and thoughts about American democracy. This story is from a group of narratives inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America."

Gary Clark (00:00): Yeah, I remember when I came back from Vietnam. First of all, I had planes that broke and things like that trying to get back. When I finally did hit San Francisco, I landed at Travis in and was whisked over to San Francisco and ran to the airport and said, "Hey, I need to get to Dayton," because I had a six months old son I'd never seen. And my wife was back in Dayton. I said, "I need to get a flight to Dayton." And the kind agent, she had long blonde hair, very attractive ticket agent, she said, "There's one leaving in 15 minutes, and I can get you on it." So I raced down. As I did, I heard sort of comments from some that were in the terminal because I was still in uniform having just flown back and not so kind. None.

(01:01): And then all the way back, I sat between a hippie and a grandmother. The grandmother said a few things, but not very much. She had been out in California to visit her daughter, and her daughter just had a baby. The hippie never said anything the whole time, and here I was sitting there. It was a sort of negative coming back. The exciting thing was seeing my son and wife again and all that. But for that whole period, it was the instructions went out, "Don't wear uniforms. Let your hair grow a little bit so that you don't look like military." I mean, when you have to sneak back in your own country, it was a little bit bothersome. I don't particularly remember voting the next time because it would've been a couple years later when I voted because I wound up in San Antonio, Texas at the time, which was very pro-military in general.

(02:07): San Antonio was a great place at that point in my life and my career. Coming back from Desert Storm was entirely different. I mean, when you traveled anywhere, if they knew you were a Desert Storm veteran, they've said, "Here, I'm going to put you in first class," and those kind of things. Entirely different. And so voting again was something, it was obviously an obligation, it was obviously important to me that I learned who I was voting for, what they stood for, and, again, did they share those values that I thought important, values on which the country was founded of independence, accountability, self-governing, all those kind of things, or were they just throwing out so bones to say, "Here, I'm going to get you this, I'm going to get you that." I don't want anything, just freedom. Just let me alone. Let me jump back just for a second on the veterans.

(03:14): I had the advantage, and some in my ilk had the advantage of both experiencing the negative aspects of coming home from Vietnam, but also the positive aspects of coming back from Desert Storm, and that helped me a lot. I mean, that made up. There are guys who are still suffering from the Vietnam stuff, and some of those folks we see over here in the courthouse, and some of those are still going through counseling because that was a tremendously damaging experience. We do Honor Flight out of here, and I help organize here in Polk County. We got another flight coming up.

Asset ID: 2022.37.11.g-h

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