A WELCOME IMAGE IRAQ WAR VETERANS HAILED UPON THEIR RETURN.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

NEWBURY PARK - At the supermarket, neighbors pat Sam Schick on the back, telling him how proud they are of his service in Iraq, for fighting for his country - and for them.

Schick, a Navy pilot who lives with his wife and two children in Moorpark, has been warmly welcomed since his return last month from flying reconnaissance missions over Iraq.

``People, they come up to me and say thank you. They say, thank you for sacrificing,'' Schick said. ``It makes you feel good inside that your fellow Americans are supporting you.''

Not since World War II, when the Allies defeated Hitler and the other Axis powers, have American veterans received such sweet homecomings.

Schick and his fellow soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen have been spared the fate of the Korean War veterans who were ignored, the Vietnam War troops who were vilified as ``baby killers,'' or the servicemen and servicewomen of the Persian Gulf War, whose swift, straightforward victory was met almost casually.

``With the exclusion of World War II, there's been little homecoming,'' said James Dwyer, chief of post-traumatic stress services for Veterans Affairs in the Los Angeles area.

Not until the Iraq war had there been a conflict that so engaged the American public and built such sympathy with troops.

Experts point to the round-the-clock television, print and online coverage that brought people close to the battle. The presence of embedded journalists, bringing images from the front lines, are credited for creating unprecedented empathy.

Couple that with the surge in patriotism since the 9-11 terrorist attacks - which elevated the status of police, firefighters and all those in uniform - and many in the military say they are being embraced this Memorial Day as never before.

Even anti-war demonstrators have been careful to criticize the war rather than the warriors.

People are again making psychological connection between the soldier and civilian that was absent from other wars, most notably Vietnam.

Robert Duncan, a retired Los Angeles City firefighter drafted at 18 and sent to Vietnam, recalled coming home in 1968 - 30 pounds lighter and grateful to be alive - and being targeted by hostile war opponents even before he reached his front door.

Duncan, a Westlake Village resident, said he was in an airport bathroom when a stranger caught sight of his jacket stuffed with Army ribbons as it hung near a stall. The man threw the jacket to the floor, stepped on it, then shoved it down the toilet, Duncan said.

The two scuffled, and ,in the end, Duncan, thin and battle weary, was badly beaten.

``No matter how bad a war is, soldiers should not be treated like dogs, and the war should not be blamed on them,'' Duncan said.

Nearly 8.8 million Americans served in that 11-year war, in which 58,203 Americans died.

Some Vietnam veterans stripped off or hid their uniforms as soon as they returned home.

Those just back from deployment in the Iraq war feel no such stigma.

Michael Gutierrez, 19, of Sylmar - home on leave after fighting in Iraq - said he wears his cotton Army shirts lounging at home, working out or out with friends.

``It was nice to come home,'' Gutierrez said. ``People are proud of you. It makes me happy and glad I went and experienced that.''

The Department of Defense estimates 250,000 American troops were deployed in the Iraq war. So far, 162 American soldiers have died.

During the first war against Iraq, the Persian Gulf War, 665,000 U.S. soldiers served and 382 died.

Gulf War veteran Tom Meumann of Camarillo said his homecoming included lots of yellow ribbons and supporters, but he never saw the hero's welcome now lavished on Iraq war vets.

``When we came back, it was smaller, always family, never parades,'' Meumann said. ``It's not even comparable because this war was more televised.''

Guadalupe Galvan, an infantry medic during the Korean War, in which 5.7 million Americans served and 36,568 died, said many soldiers of his generation were discouraged by the indifferent homecoming they received.

``Nobody cared,'' said the 72-year-old man, who still has numbness in his right arm where he was shot while attempting to rescue a wounded soldier.

``They are treated more fairly now,'' Galvan said from his San Fernando home. ``People seem to care that you are going to fight for your country, even though it's a foreign land, even if you don't believe in it.''

Charles Acquistapace, 83, of Granada Hills fought in America's biggest land battle of World War II: the Battle of the Bulge.

He recalled a homecoming that swept the nation.

``We landed in New York, and the city welcomed us,'' he said. ``Everyone welcomed us. I wore my uniform for a month.''

An estimated 16.1 million Americans served - 405,399 of them dying - in World War II, according to Department of Defense statistics.

Schick, the Iraq war pilot, said America's latest conflict has echoes of World War II. In the 1940s, every family knew somebody in the war, he said. In this war, every family has gotten an intimate look at soldiers on their television screens.

``I think the difference is that people are starting to realize that us folks in the military just do our job. We don't make the policy.''

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(color) Navy Commander Sam Schick, with son Matthew, 14; wife, Kelly; and daughter Megan, 11, said that kind words have made his homecoming satisfying. ``It makes you feel good inside that your fellow Americans are supporting you.''

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer