History Main / ReturningWarVet

* The hero in ''Film/IAmAFugitiveFromAChainGang'' is a WorldWarOne vet trying to survive TheThirties. It often gets overshadowed by the film's penal reform themes but this movie also deals with how American war vets had been abandoned by the government.

* In ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'', Jimmy Darmody and Richard Harrow return from WorldWarOne and end up in the bootlegging business. Al Capone claims to have been in France with the Lost Battalion as well.

* Tom Cruise is a paraplegic [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] veteran in ''Literature/BornOnTheFourthOfJuly''.

* The classic example of this trope is ''Film/TheBestYearsOfOurLives'' which involves three WW II veterans returning to their hometown where their adjustment to post-war life is met with varying levels of success. (One of the actors, Harold Russell, was an actual Navy vet who had lost both hands in combat.)

* ''Replica'' by {{SonataArctica}} is a story told by a man returning from war who just sits outside house of his old love unable to meet people he once knew.

* Tom Cruise is a paraplegic [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] veteran in ''Film/BornOnTheFourthOfJuly''.

* The main character, William Mandella, is repeatedly this in ''TheForeverWar''. Given that every time he returns he has been away for decades, even centuries, Earth-time, he ''[[FishOutOfTemporalWater really]]'' feels out of place there. It also becomes his main motivation for staying in the military, even though he hates it.

[[quoteright:291:[[Film/FirstBlood http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rambo1.jpg]]]]

* The classic example of this trope is ''Film/TheBestYearsOfTheirLives'' which involves three WW II veterans returning to their hometown following the war. (One of the actors, Harold Russell, was an actual Navy vet who had lost both hands in combat.)

* ''Film/TheBestYearsOfOurLives'' tells the story of three WWII vets returning to their hometown Boone City where their adjustment to post-war life is met with varying levels of success.

* ''Film/Ruckus'' the main character Kyle has returned from Vietnam. He embarrasses some local bullies and the town boss thinks he served in the same unit as his missing son. Setting off a running series of battles.

* CaptainAmerica uses his battlefield command experience to lead teams of superheros against supervillains.
* How [[{{Preacher}} Jesse Custer]]'s father met Jesse's mother. He was returning from Vietnam, she was protesting the war by throwing junk at returning soldiers... It was love at first sight.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''[[{{Spelljammer}} Beyond the Moons]]'' by David Cook. Teldin Moore is a returned war veteran, all right. But what his career taught him is that for some people war isn't about heroic charges but mostly [[WarIsHell about burying the corpses]], skinning mules and so on. Though at least he traveled far (on his legs) and has rather broad experience -- for [[{{Dragonlance}} his world]], anyway. [[spoiler:Not that he got to live in it much longer.]]

* In 2004's remake of ''Film/WalkingTall,'' Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays a returning soldier who must clean up his small town after drug dealers and criminals overrun it.

* Tom Cruise plays a returning vet in ''{{Cocktail}}'', though this is one of the rare examples where what he learned in the military proved of no use to him later on.
* {{Rambo}} in ''FirstBlood'' would fit this, though it wasn't ''his'' home town; he was just passing through and trying to look up one of his war buddies.
* Parodied in ''[[ImGonnaGitYouSucka I'm Gonna Git You Sucka]]'', where Jack Spade was an Army vet...but his only experience was as an office clerk.
* The most triumphant example, metaphorically speaking, would be Travis Bickle from ''TaxiDriver''. In terms of Vietnam causing his total alienation from normal society.

* Tom Cruise is a paraplegic [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] veteran in ''BornOnTheFourthOfJuly''.

* Took up quite a few episodes in ''BandOfBrothers''.

* In the backstory of ''SonsOfAnarchy'', the founding members of the club were returning Vietnam War vets. While it was not their original intention, their army training comes in useful when they become involved in gun running and engage in a bloody turf war with an rival gang.
* In BoardwalkEmpire, Jimmy Darmody and Richard Harrow return from WorldWarOne and end up in the bootlegging business. Al Capone claims to have been in France with the Lost Battalion as well.

When done well, his military history will not be his only definable characteristic. When done poorly, he's little more than a mobile set of fatigues.

Compare ShellShocked Veteran.

When done well, his military history will not be his only definable characteristic. When done poorly, he's little more than a mobile set of fatigues.

* In ''SilentHillHomecoming'', Alex Shepherd comes back from overseas with the Special Forces only to find his father and brother are missing and he's being haunted by constructs from the titular town.

* ''ThePunisher''

* ''Film/ComingHome''
* ''Film/TheDeerHunter''

* ''TheExecutioner''

* Michael Corleone in ''Film/TheGodfather'' comes back from World War II as a decorated Marine.