Members of the Wisconsin Lao Veterans of America, who fought with U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, take part in LZ Lambeau, a three-day welcome home event for Vietnam veterans. Holding the flag is Chia Cha Vang, who fought from 1967 to 1975. (Michael Sears)Vietnam vets finally get some thanks for doing a thankless job
May 22, 2010
By Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin, USA)
Green Bay — He wore a hat that said "Proud to be a Vietnam Veteran."
He went to the small wooden sign that said Pleiku and struggled to get out of his wheelchair, then knelt on the large map. With a black marker he wrote "Jim Hitchcock 588th Eng. I'm sorry. Rest in Peace."
Hitchcock returned to his chair and cried as his wife hugged him.
The 62-year-old Town of Lisbon man wasn't welcomed home when he returned from Vietnam. He spent a year there building base camps, spraying the defoliant chemical Agent Orange without a mask.
He tried to forget.
"I grew my hair long and I got lost," Hitchcock said Saturday morning at Lambeau Field. "If anybody asked me if I was in the service, I would say no."
Now he's no longer afraid to say he served. But he didn't get a welcome home party until this weekend when he came to LZ Lambeau, a three-day celebration honoring Wisconsin's Vietnam veterans.
Though the war in Vietnam ended for the United States 35 years ago, many of the thousands of veterans who turned out for "Landing Zone Lambeau" with their families didn't seem to mind the lapse - they wanted simply to relax, reconnect and reflect.
During a prayer to open the event Saturday morning, Cletus Ninham, 66, who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart serving with the 101st Airborne, told the crowd that it was time to forgive a country that in some respects treated them poorly. Ninham, of Oneida, said Vietnam veterans could choose to live in the past or move ahead with their lives.
"Sometimes old wounds that are infected have to be reopened to heal," said Ninham, who served in Vietnam in 1965-'66.
LZ Lambeau, which continues Sunday at Lambeau Field, is part of the privately funded Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories project. The veterans outreach effort includes a three-hour documentary produced by Wisconsin Public Television and a book by the Wisconsin Historical Society. The documentary airs on public television stations in Wisconsin Monday through Wednesday from 8 to 9 p.m. followed by a one-hour special airing on Thursday showing highlights of LZ Lambeau.
Inside the stadium's atrium were displays by veterans groups including memorabilia from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and placards with news articles of men killed in Vietnam, arranged by county. Seminars featured speakers discussing Wisconsin female Vietnam veterans, the secret war in Laos and music-based memories of those who served in Vietnam.
LZ Lambeau included a display of Vietnam-era aircraft at Austin Straubel Field, music acts including She 5, a reunion of a Wisconsin girl group that toured Vietnam, and a tribute ceremony inside Lambeau Field featuring segments of Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories.
A line snaked outside the stadium to the Moving Wall - a smaller version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. - which was set up across the street from Lambeau Field. Folks walked silently by; some left mementos, a pair of combat boots, black and white photos, roses.
Using a black crayon and white paper, Don Chic, 64, of West Allis carefully rubbed the names of four buddies he left behind in Vietnam including a friend killed in the siege of Khe Sanh and two friends who died in an ambush in China Beach.
A Marine who served two tours from 1966 to 1968, Chic said he was called a baby killer in Chicago's O'Hare Airport when he came home. He was 21.
He said he came to LZ Lambeau for "a little bit of peace."
After an opening ceremony Saturday morning that featured American Indian singers and drumming, dozens of Vietnam veterans carrying flags stood in a line as well-wishers walked past them to shake their hands, hug them and snap off crisp salutes.
Among them was Thao Seng, secretary of the Wisconsin Lao Veterans of America, who helped the U.S. forces in his native country. The Hmong were known for helping rescue downed American pilots and fighting alongside American GIs. Seng, 52, of Green Bay, stood at attention before every U.S. veteran in the receiving line and saluted.
The largest gathering spot was the gigantic map of southeast Asia laid out on the pavement of the parking lot where tailgaters grill on Packers Sundays. Hundreds of veterans walked across the South China Sea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, looking down, stopping to read the comments and adding their own. Guys who had served in Danang clustered around a wooden pole painted with the Vietnam city's name. It was the same for markers that read Ashau Valley, Saigon, Khe Sanh, Dak To, Iron Triangle.
Under Cambodia someone wrote "Cambodia? Didn't Know It Was On the Map!!" Next to it someone else wrote "I was not here either!"
Many wrote their names and units. Some left heartfelt messages.
Pleiku: "RIP KIA 1967 SP4 Roger Goldsmith Black River Falls, Wis. 1967"
Cam Ranh Bay: "In memory of Lyle Thompson. Thank You Uncle."
Danang: "Dar 'The She 5' 1968 Loved Playing for you Guys!!"
Quang Tri: "Edward Veser, Died May 6, 1970. You were my life. Love always, Connie"
And: "In Memory of the 88 Marines and Corpsmen from Echo Co. 2/7 1st Marine Div. Semper Fi. Robert Lindmark"
David L. Petersen, 62, of Hudson wore a "1st Infantry Division" hat with a patch on the side for the Combat Infantry Badge he earned and the word "Ranger" on the back. He was wounded in the back by shrapnel while jumping into a foxhole.
Petersen's family welcomed him home, but that was it. No parades, no ceremony, no official recognition. He blended back into society, went to school, worked, raised a family. During the year he spent in Vietnam in 1967 and '68 he didn't know about the protests and growing anti-war sentiment back home.
"We called the States 'the world' and we couldn't wait to get back to the world because it was home, it wasn't hostile," said Petersen.
He credits the support of his family as well as a positive outlook and a sense of humor for helping him get through the war. And on Saturday, he drove from Hudson to Green Bay for a party he should have gotten four decades ago.
"I wanted to get welcomed home. I wanted to get closure," Petersen said, sipping a soda. "You know what closure is? It's a beautiful thing."
He went to the small wooden sign that said Pleiku and struggled to get out of his wheelchair, then knelt on the large map. With a black marker he wrote "Jim Hitchcock 588th Eng. I'm sorry. Rest in Peace."
Hitchcock returned to his chair and cried as his wife hugged him.
The 62-year-old Town of Lisbon man wasn't welcomed home when he returned from Vietnam. He spent a year there building base camps, spraying the defoliant chemical Agent Orange without a mask.
He tried to forget.
"I grew my hair long and I got lost," Hitchcock said Saturday morning at Lambeau Field. "If anybody asked me if I was in the service, I would say no."
Now he's no longer afraid to say he served. But he didn't get a welcome home party until this weekend when he came to LZ Lambeau, a three-day celebration honoring Wisconsin's Vietnam veterans.
Though the war in Vietnam ended for the United States 35 years ago, many of the thousands of veterans who turned out for "Landing Zone Lambeau" with their families didn't seem to mind the lapse - they wanted simply to relax, reconnect and reflect.
During a prayer to open the event Saturday morning, Cletus Ninham, 66, who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart serving with the 101st Airborne, told the crowd that it was time to forgive a country that in some respects treated them poorly. Ninham, of Oneida, said Vietnam veterans could choose to live in the past or move ahead with their lives.
"Sometimes old wounds that are infected have to be reopened to heal," said Ninham, who served in Vietnam in 1965-'66.
LZ Lambeau, which continues Sunday at Lambeau Field, is part of the privately funded Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories project. The veterans outreach effort includes a three-hour documentary produced by Wisconsin Public Television and a book by the Wisconsin Historical Society. The documentary airs on public television stations in Wisconsin Monday through Wednesday from 8 to 9 p.m. followed by a one-hour special airing on Thursday showing highlights of LZ Lambeau.
Inside the stadium's atrium were displays by veterans groups including memorabilia from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and placards with news articles of men killed in Vietnam, arranged by county. Seminars featured speakers discussing Wisconsin female Vietnam veterans, the secret war in Laos and music-based memories of those who served in Vietnam.
LZ Lambeau included a display of Vietnam-era aircraft at Austin Straubel Field, music acts including She 5, a reunion of a Wisconsin girl group that toured Vietnam, and a tribute ceremony inside Lambeau Field featuring segments of Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories.
A line snaked outside the stadium to the Moving Wall - a smaller version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. - which was set up across the street from Lambeau Field. Folks walked silently by; some left mementos, a pair of combat boots, black and white photos, roses.
Using a black crayon and white paper, Don Chic, 64, of West Allis carefully rubbed the names of four buddies he left behind in Vietnam including a friend killed in the siege of Khe Sanh and two friends who died in an ambush in China Beach.
A Marine who served two tours from 1966 to 1968, Chic said he was called a baby killer in Chicago's O'Hare Airport when he came home. He was 21.
He said he came to LZ Lambeau for "a little bit of peace."
After an opening ceremony Saturday morning that featured American Indian singers and drumming, dozens of Vietnam veterans carrying flags stood in a line as well-wishers walked past them to shake their hands, hug them and snap off crisp salutes.
Among them was Thao Seng, secretary of the Wisconsin Lao Veterans of America, who helped the U.S. forces in his native country. The Hmong were known for helping rescue downed American pilots and fighting alongside American GIs. Seng, 52, of Green Bay, stood at attention before every U.S. veteran in the receiving line and saluted.
The largest gathering spot was the gigantic map of southeast Asia laid out on the pavement of the parking lot where tailgaters grill on Packers Sundays. Hundreds of veterans walked across the South China Sea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, looking down, stopping to read the comments and adding their own. Guys who had served in Danang clustered around a wooden pole painted with the Vietnam city's name. It was the same for markers that read Ashau Valley, Saigon, Khe Sanh, Dak To, Iron Triangle.
Under Cambodia someone wrote "Cambodia? Didn't Know It Was On the Map!!" Next to it someone else wrote "I was not here either!"
Many wrote their names and units. Some left heartfelt messages.
Pleiku: "RIP KIA 1967 SP4 Roger Goldsmith Black River Falls, Wis. 1967"
Cam Ranh Bay: "In memory of Lyle Thompson. Thank You Uncle."
Danang: "Dar 'The She 5' 1968 Loved Playing for you Guys!!"
Quang Tri: "Edward Veser, Died May 6, 1970. You were my life. Love always, Connie"
And: "In Memory of the 88 Marines and Corpsmen from Echo Co. 2/7 1st Marine Div. Semper Fi. Robert Lindmark"
David L. Petersen, 62, of Hudson wore a "1st Infantry Division" hat with a patch on the side for the Combat Infantry Badge he earned and the word "Ranger" on the back. He was wounded in the back by shrapnel while jumping into a foxhole.
Petersen's family welcomed him home, but that was it. No parades, no ceremony, no official recognition. He blended back into society, went to school, worked, raised a family. During the year he spent in Vietnam in 1967 and '68 he didn't know about the protests and growing anti-war sentiment back home.
"We called the States 'the world' and we couldn't wait to get back to the world because it was home, it wasn't hostile," said Petersen.
He credits the support of his family as well as a positive outlook and a sense of humor for helping him get through the war. And on Saturday, he drove from Hudson to Green Bay for a party he should have gotten four decades ago.
"I wanted to get welcomed home. I wanted to get closure," Petersen said, sipping a soda. "You know what closure is? It's a beautiful thing."
3 comments:
You should not, that was not serious when Americans asked you to fight, they made a joke, they would after all leave you at the start of 1975 :(
Fucken US screwed up everyboddy in South East Asia...US ran away from cambodia and turning cambodia into a killing field zone...!!
wow I did not know this picture was on here. who took this picture? If there was not a Fight in the first place then we would not be here. I mean think about.
I'm proud what we did to save our country and our people.
I'm Proud to be Hmong.
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