[solemn brass music]
- Hannah Campbell: What was the biggest change
about you from Vietnam?
- Tom Geerdes: I was not really worried anymore
about being socially acceptable.
From the day I got out, I didn't shave or cut my hair
for probably a year, and people that I knew before I left,
even some of my cousins, didn't think too much of me
after I got back.
So I took a long bicycle trip. [chuckles]
- Hannah: You went off and got by yourself.
- Tom: Yeah.
I rode straight north up through Minnesota, cut across and uh,
rode all the way to the west coast.
Took me about six weeks.
- Hannah: Do you think that you sort of healed
from Vietnam on that trip?
- Tom: It helped a lot.
But uh, really I actually didn't heal from Vietnam
till quite a number of years later.
I had a janitorial business and I was doing floors at Sears.
And uh, they had a Vietnam movie on there.
And uh, something just broke. [sniffling]
And I cried, I sobbed like a baby for a couple hours
while I was finishing them floors.
Just sobbed like a baby.
'Cause it was several good friends I lost.
It's just too much devastation that I saw over there,
just too much hurt.
And I really didn't plan on coming back.
- Hannah: I'm glad you came back.
- Tom: Yeah, [laughing] me too.
[sniffling] Me too.
[gentle brass music]