THOUGHTS FROM THE MAN CAVE
Twenty Our Fallen
Lt. Col. John C. Hedley, USA (Ret.) with his latest book.
John Hedley and his books honor those who served, including classmates who made the ultimate sacrifice by Mike Savicki | photography by Jamie Cowles
Lt. Col. John C. Hedley, USA (Ret.) doesn’t claim to be a writer. Never has. As the story goes, when Hedley was a cadet writing letters home to his parents in the 1960s, his father would take a red pen and mark every grammar, spelling, and punctuation error he found then turn around and send the letters right back to his son, usually with the closing salutation, “aren’t they teaching you anything at West Point?” Have you ever had a calling? Have you ever felt drawn to do something so remarkable that it keeps you awake at night? Something for others? Something that will live on and on, serving as a legacy—a memorial—so that stories and images, records, and reflections, will never be forgotten? Something difficult and daring? Something bold? Fast forward nearly half a century—his cadet days far behind—and Denver’s John Hedley has written not one, but two books related to his time in Vietnam. When great people, no matter their backgrounds or training, feel a calling to do something extraordinary, especially something that celebrates and memorializes others while dredging up horrific and life-altering personal traumas, well, they buckle down and do it. For John Hedley to write his two books, 2017’s “Saddle Up, The Story of a Red Scarf,” and the soon-to-be-published, “From the Shadows, A Tribute to the 1968 West Point Graduates Who Gave Their Lives in Vietnam,” he had to go back and revisit a war he has been spending decades trying to put behind him. His first book took about eight years to finish, including a six-month period when it was too much—he stepped away from it entirely— and were it not for the motivation of a milestone reunion gathering, his second book could have easily taken as long (or longer) to finish. Or it may not have happened at all. The memories of Vietnam are that strong. 30
LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS | MAY 2022
“It’s tough to write about guys you served with, to write about death,” Lt. Col. Hedley tells me as we sit alone in Richard’s Coffee Shop and Living Military Museum. “I didn’t want to do this (second) one because I didn’t want to go down another emotional trail. I didn’t want to revisit what was dredged up when I wrote the first one.” Vietnam was not always front and center to Hedley. On the first day of July 1964, when a younger John Hedley joined approximately 990 young men of the 1000 who initially accepted appointments reported to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, most Americans couldn’t find Vietnam on a map, nor had they even heard the name mentioned. “But it quickly became evident that when we graduated it was most likely we’d go over,” Hedley shares. “Those who graduated knew we were going to get shot at. Those of us who went in early knew we’d be in some intense combat.” How intense? 1968 was the worst year for American casualties—15,000 were killed. In 1969, when his graduating class began arriving, 11,000 more were lost. In the midst of it all, John Hedley arrived in Vietnam on his 24th birthday. And in his year on the ground, Hedley led multiple commands—rifle commander, platoon leader, recon platoon leader, and company commander—and when he returned to the United States, he had earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star with “V” Valor, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. “I was privileged to command some outstanding young soldiers when I was there,” he recalls. “But none of it, and nothing I did, was for me. We were all in Vietnam because that is what our country asked.” Even now, the toll of the Vietnam War is still being tabulated. Thousands died. Many more were seriously or gravely injured. A
