Vietnam: 40 Years Later by The Southern Illinoisan

Sponsored by Southern Illinois University

Publication of The Southern Illinoisan

Thankful service men and women sent letters to members of HOME (Honoring Our Men’s Efforts) during the Vietnam War telling of promotions, marriages and births, as well as joyful news of discharges.

FROM HOME Mothers respond to the war with positive messages MARILYN HALSTEAD THE SOUTHERN‌

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hanks to the efforts of several Carbondale women and Special Collections at Morris Library, the efforts of an organization formed nearly 50 years ago, Honor Our Men’s Efforts or HOME, have been preserved. Most of the women had sons or daughters on active duty during the Vietnam War and simply wanted to support young men and women from Carbondale. “LaDaw Bridges had one son who was not in service at time, and she was the one who thought we should do something to pay our respect to all our military,” Anita Lenzini, one of the HOME was “a group members of HOME, told The Southern Illinoisan of like-minded in 2010. women as a response But there is more to to what they believed the story, according to notes Bridges wrote was an apathetic about the formation of reaction on the the group for Morris Library Special Collecpart of most people tions. Bridges began to to the existence notice the demeanor of the young men who to an undeclared came home to Carbonwar in Vietnam.” dale from Vietnam. John Clutts came to visit the Bridges’ home and their son, Bart. The boy who used to guzzle cake, cookies and coffee looked old and weary with deep-set eyes that reflected a sadness. “Now here he was, pale and shaken, with a chill it seemed,” she wrote. She wanted them to know they were loved and remembered at home.

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Members of HOME kept records on each service man and woman that received their newsletters. This is a portion of those records.

HOME was “a group of like-minded women as a response to what they believed was an apathetic reaction on the part of most people to the existence to an undeclared war in Vietnam,” Bridges wrote. The women wanted their letters to just be a newsletter from the city of Carbondale to those in the military during the Vietnam War. It was not a political platform, but a way to keep in touch with servicemen and women from the Carbondale area — 470 of them over five years. Janet Harris wrote that she was invited to help form the new group by Frances Phillips. Harris had two sons in the service; one was a Marine serving in Vietnam. She went to the Post Office and checked for a letter after not hearing from her Marine for more than three weeks. The box was empty and she broke

into tears. Phillips saw her and instinctively knew what was wrong. Phillips asked Harris if she would be interested in joining a group to support those serving active duty. The group first met on April 6, 1967, in First Christian Church with five members, Bridges, Harris, Phillips, Lyndall Keifer and Jean Safriet. The collected newsletters, now at Morris Library, are a catalog of history of Carbondale during the Vietnam War years. They also include some national, state and regional news. Some highlights include: Walt Frazier drafted by the NBA in the first newsletter dated May 9, 1969; sports teams from Carbondale Community, Attucks and University high schools are consolidated for the first time (Aug. 23, 1967); students break into President Morris’ office at SIU and are arrested (May 29, 1968);

Kent State shooting and its effect on Carbondale (May 27, 1970). The news also includes tidbits about life in Southern Illinois, such as the story of fishermen on Lake Murphysboro catching a 6-pound goldfish. There were sports highlights from SIU and Carbondale teams. News from those in the service was added as it came home. It tells of marriages, discharges, awards and when local men and women ran into each other overseas. Each newsletter ended with this sentence: “We, your mothers and friends, pray for you to be of great courage, deep faith, good health, and clear minds for we love and thank you all.” The men appreciated the letters, too. The library has two boxes of correspondence from service men and women. The letters say, “thank you,” but also include military promotions, discharges and

MARILYN HALSTEAD PHOTOS, THE SOUTHERN‌

relocations, marriages, birth announcements, holiday cards and pictures. Mrs. Robert Buzca wrote that it was difficult to get and keep members. Women would come for a little while and then never come to another meeting. “Those of us who had sons in the service stayed on. The HOME group became an important phase in our lives,” Buzca wrote. Lenzini said the group was good for the parents involved, too. “It was a wonderful, wonderful therapy group. My husband was in World War II, but there certainly was a different feeling for our sons when they had to go,” she said. “If we felt like crying or laughing, we could do so. It was the best therapy group.” marilyn.halstead@thesouthern.com/618-351-5078

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 3

ENYART LOOKS BACK ON EARLY MILITARY CAREER filled, top to bottom, with coffins. “It was such a clear picture of death to me and it was hard to look at,” he said. “That was one of the toughuring the 15 months that Bill est days.” Enyart spent in the U.S. Air On the day he got home in 1973, Force on Okinawa Island just north of Japan, he wasn’t sure Enyart picked up a newspaper and read a line about the Paris what would be next for him. Peace Accords. As a 19-year-old far away from “I was shocked. None of us had home in the 1970s, Enyart was in need seen it coming, and that was a really of something. “I was young and dumb and wasn’t cool thing to come home to,” he said. After that, he grew his hair out and sure about what I wanted,” he said. “I went to Southern Illinois University was a kid sorely in need of direction on the GI Bill. and experience.” He studied law and later, joined Those months, where he worked tirelessly on planes used during mis- the Illinois Army National Guard as a sions in the Vietnam War, provided a JAG officer. “I just went and did what I had slice of that. to do,” he said. “When you’re surBefore Enyart plunged into a hefty rounded by a small neighborhood political and military career, topped in the South, that’s what everyone off with his role as an Illinois conassumes you’re going to do.” gressman, he was on that Air Force Although he didn’t see it firsthand, base in Okinawa. Planes would come in mangled and he’s heard about the protests and the missing pieces, and Enyart helped put dirty looks passed toward his friends who are Vietnam veterans. the pieces back together. “The Vietnam War was divisive for “I was flying and refueling and fixour nation. I think it will be another ing them, every single day,” he said. 50 or 100 years before we ever know “It was all about getting the planes if what we did there was the right ready for the next mission.” thing,” he said. Okinawa was a small island, busStill, as he looks back on the whole tling with thousands of soldiers at any given time. It was hot and muggy and of his military career, serving on that every so often, he’d find old shells and island was his starting point. “So many people in my generation bombs leftover from other soliders, lost friends in that war,” he said. “When who had fought in World War II. you grow up in a small town, everyone He worked during the nights and knew someone who was killed.” during the early morning hours. “The planes came in so beat up, and we just had to wonder what the 859-797-2474 618-351-5074 people on board had gone through,” amanda.hancock@thesouthern.com he said. @Amanda1hancock One day, a plane came in that was AMANDA HANCOCK THE SOUTHERN ‌

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A page from Bill Enyart’s scrapbook that tracked his early military career.

COURTESY‌

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO‌

U.S. Marines leave the flaming village of Cam Ne after setting fire to about 100 homes during the Vietnam War in 1965. The Marines said they received orders to set fire to homes if they got sniper fire. The village, about 400 yards from the Marines’ southern most position around Da Nang Air Base, has been a problem to the Marines.

In this March 28, 1973 photo, a Viet Cong observer of the Four Party Joint Military Commission counts U.S. troops as they prepare to board jet aircraft at Saigonís Tan Son Nhut airport. As the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam 40 years ago, angry protesters still awaited them at home. North Vietnamese soldiers took heart from their foes’ departure, and South Vietnamese who ASSOCIATE PRESS PHOTOS had helped the Americans feared for the future. While the fall of Saigon two years later — with A nurse lands in the Saigon River during a maneuver in Vietnam on Dec. 28, 1964. The parachutits indelible images of frantic helicopter evacuations — is remembered as the final day of the ing nurses, a new corps which is flown into battle areas and dropped to attend to the wounded, is Vietnam War, Friday marks an anniversary that holds greater meaning for many who fought, one of the most recent uses of women in the government’s struggle against the Viet Cong. protested or otherwise lived it.

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 5

INSIDE THE MIND OF ROCKY MORRIS:

AMANDA HANCOCK PHOTOS‌

THE WAR NEVER STOPS Page 6 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER

AMANDA HANCOCK THE SOUTHERN ‌

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f Rocky Morris had served in a different war, maybe there wouldn’t have been so much mud. But in Vietnam, he spent so many nights in the mud. He’s 67 now, but on most days, Morris can still feel the mud and the ground and the rain. That’s what his mind travels back to, when it suddenly switches back to the jungles of Vietnam in 1968. The mud trickles back into his boots and his hands and sprays in droplets across his face. His body is horizontal again, plunged in the gooey brown substance and his fingers are clinging around his machine gun, gripping the metal tight, like not wanting to slip from a set of monkeybars. During those nights in the mud, Morrris prayed. He made deals with any higher power that would listen, trading in his soul to make it to the next morning. Some days, it was hot and muggy, so he prayed for rain. And when the monsoons rolled in, he prayed for the sun. “Sometimes, when you pray for something, you don’t what’s going to come out the other side of it,” he said. “But that’s all I know to do.” Morris thinks about his 13 months in combat with the tint of an old John Wayne movie. He thinks about firing, shooting, killing — over and over. And he finds himself in the mud, when it was dark and he could hear his buddies taking short breaths between the tall, thin grass. On those nights, he couldn’t stop thinking: Why this war? What is our purpose? Why are we here?  When Morris landed in Vietnam, it was October 1967. His family couldn’t afford college, but he never imagined spending his post-high school years anywhere other than in the thick of a war. That’s what his father and grandfather had done. That’s what most boys his age were supposed to do. If you didn’t serve, Morris says, someone would flash you one of those unspoken nods of disapproval in the grocery store. “In our minds, we couldn’t wrap our head around why people wouldn’t want to go,” he said. “It was the tradition of it. It was our job.” So he went. He was 17 years old when he left his home in West Frankfort behind. His chin could barely sprout a beard. “One day, you’re in high school

and it’s all fun and glory, and then six months later, you’re in war,” he said. “No one prepares you for that.”  As a squad leader, Morris ran patrols around the clock. He was always watching his steps, always ready for a fight. “It was like being in a car wreck or being broken up with, it was like repeating the worst day of your life over and over again,” he said. Guys lost their hair, lost weight, lost their minds. They ate boxed meals. They were talking to you, and then they’d they take a step and get blown up. “You have to stay focused. You were always in search and destroy mode. You were always looking,” he said. “You were chasing the next thing.” After the Tet Offensive in January, it got even worse. “Everything was backwards. They had the wrong dates and the wrong times, but we didn’t question it. We did what we were told,” Morris said, Some days, they didn’t know what, or who they were chasing. “There was the face-to-face war. Then there was the culture of America is the land of plenty. We had to be schooled on that.” “We thought these people want to

be free,” he said. “That’s what we were fighting for, because that’s what we do.” Being a soldier meant getting up from the mud, and moving forward. So he put his boots back on. And he kept going. For 13 months, he kept going. “We still couldn’t put the pieces together,” Morris said. “What are we chasing? What are we looking for?”  During the stretches of time he wasn’t in combat, his unit would sit in a dry spot and take out their boomboxes. They blared music to forget about the blood. They sang along to the Beach Boys and Barry White. “You had to really try to get out of that mindset, it took a lot to even enjoy a moment like that,” he said. In handwritten letters from his mom and dad, Morris would read about the protests and American flags burning and Kent State University. He read about draft-dodgers. “We were thinking we were doing the right thing, and we didn’t know all these thousands of people thought we were doing the wrong thing,” he said. They’d sit around and wonder, what’s really happening in the States?  When Morris landed in a California airport, he could hear the chants of

the protestors. One guy threw something at him, so he chased him down the terminal. “Soldiers were the enemy,” he said. “The war was brought straight into the living room. Everyone was in it and everyone had an opinion.” So he wasn’t sure what to do when he got back home to Southern Illinois. He worked in the mines and did drugs and drank a lot. He traveled and ran away from girlfirends. He didn’t know what to say, and no one knew what to say to him. His temper kept everybody at arms length. “You see your buddies ripped to shreds, and that’s in your mind the rest of your life,” he said. “I don’t think a mind can ever comprehend it and I don’t think a mind is supposed to deal with that.” He was suffering from the elements of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but he didn’t have the words for it. Why did some people not make it and he did? Six months ago, he found out he has Agent Orange disease from the chemicals sprayed on the forests he worked so hard to fight through. “I wish there was a button you could erase it,” he said. “I wish the images weren’t right there, like an old song where you hear it and you go right back to it.”  When Morris looks back on the last 45 years, he still can’t fully understand the war that so many Americans hated. “It’s hard to make sense of, it’s not something we really ever understand and that’s hard,” he said. Living in Benton now, Morris doesn’t get out much. He goes to the gym, and attends city meetings and spends time with his five grandchildren. “No matter what, I’d want a Vietnam veteran on my side. They don’t run and they don’t hide,” Morris said. “That’s what an American soldier is.” Still, he thinks about tens of thousands who were killed in Vietnam. The friends he saw die. The years he has spent, and perhaps lost, grappling with a messed-up mind. “What’s scary is that wars never end,” he said. “Once you start it, you can never stop it again.” 859-797-2474 618-351-5074 amanda.hancock@thesouthern.com @Amanda1hancock

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 7

Photos of student activism on the SIU campus during the Vietnam War era, including events that led to the shut down of SIU in May 1970, are reprinted with the permission of former SIU student and administrator Tom Busch, who compiled the collection, and the SIU Special Collections Research Center.

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SIU CAMPUS SHUT DOWN

DURING VIETNAM MOLLY PARKER THE SOUTHERN‌

n the evening of May 4, 1970 — the day four Kent State University students died after members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators — some 400 students gathered on the campus of Southern Illinois University and voted unanimously to join hundreds of other campuses in a class boycott. Protests and demonstrations continued to build for three days leading up to one of the most destructive nights in Carbondale’s history. On May 6, students staged protests at Wheeler Hall, the bottom floor of which housed the Air Force ROTC, and Woody Hall, which housed the university’s new Center for Vietnamese Studies and Programs, a university-government partnership that was a lightning rod of controversy during this era. The next day, classes were officially called off to mourn the loss of students at Kent State. Confusion, anger and angst were in full force that day, May 7, 1970, when about 1,500 people, with a permit to assemble, gathered near Main Street and Illinois Avenue on The Strip and blocked traffic to protest. Police and members of the Illinois National Guard who had been called to campus to attempt to maintain order had agreed to reroute traffic on nearby streets, so long as demonstrators agreed to stay off the Illinois Central railroad tracks. According to archived reports in The Southern Illinoisan from that day, demonstrators began blocking the tracks, and what began as a peaceful protest quickly turned violent. Law enforcement from the city, university, state and National Guard met and decided to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, hoping to move them south toward campus.

Violence broke out as 40 state police officers pumped tear gas into the crowd. As demonstrators were dispersed, they vandalized businesses, throwing rocks at their windows, and set fire to a vacant building on Mill Street. Then a vibrant commercial district, some 78 businesses were seriously damaged that night and dozens of people were injured, though most injuries were reported as minor. Then-Mayor David Keene responded by implementing a 7:30 p.m. curfew, forbidding gatherings of more than 25 people, and banning alcohol sales, according to newspaper reports. Returning from the weekend, thenSIU Chancellor Robert MacVicar issued a special bulletin that Monday, which read: “This morning we start the task of reconstruction of a university, and a university community. The tragedy of last week is not merely the injuries suffered by participants and by the officers of law enforcement — not merely the loss of property on campus in the community. The real tragedy is that a small group has been able to so influence a segment of our students that they provided the screen behind which the acts of violence could be hidden.”

PROTEST AT PRESIDENT MORRIS’S HOME‌ But run-ins between protesters and law enforcement continued. On May 12, 1970, a large crowd of students gathered at Morris Library before many of them began a march through Carbondale, and to the home of SIUC President Delyte D. Morris. The Daily Egyptian, SIU’s student newspaper, estimated the crowd at Morris’s house at 3,500 students. The newspaper described the demonstration as mostly peaceful, but quoted Morris’s wife as saying students caused three fires SEE SIU / PAGE 10

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 9

SIU

SIU graduate and former employee Tom Busch, now of Maryland, recalls being a student on campus during this era. Of Champaign, Illinois, Busch started as a freshman in 1963, but he joined the Navy reserves in high school and was called into activity duty a few years later before finishing his schooling. Busch said, after he was discharged due to injury, he returned in 1968. Busch recalled that as a Vietnam-era veteran, he was treated most harshly in town by other veterans of other wars, and said he was once kicked out of a VFW. But on campus, Busch said he didn’t advertise his military service, and joined the majority of students in opposing the war. He described that era as a “very, very explosive time.” “It wasn’t just unique to SIU,” he said. “The whole bloody nation was really struggling with things that were happening.”

FROM PAGE 9

in the home, one on a mattress, in the kitchen, and in the living room where a cherry bomb landed. She also reported all the food was taken from the fridge. After this, Chancellor MacVicar called for the indefinite closure of campus. The next day, Morris spoke to a crowd of about 3,000 to discuss closing of campus, and announced that polling places would be established for students, faculty and staff to vote on whether the university should remain closed, or be reopened. Confusion and chaos reigned, say those who were there. The following day, May 14, 1970, two students were killed at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, by police officers, and many others injured, further agitating protesters at SIU and nationally. As tensions escalated, the SIU Board of Trustees, in consultation with then-Gov. Richard Ogilvie, voted 4-1 on May 15, 1970, to shut down campus for the spring semester three weeks early, and to issue students pass/fail grades for the semester. As the board deliberated, reports came in that three black SIU students believed to have ties to the Black Panthers were injured, one critically, when an explosive device inside a suitcase detonated inside a home in northeast Carbondale. Ogilvie is quoted as saying that day, “I do not think we can keep universities open with bayonets.” The decision made SIU the only university in Illinois to close from protests in the 1970s.

DESTRUCTION ON CAMPUS‌

In May 1968, there was the bombing of the Agriculture Building. Though the incident remains a cold case, SIU notes on its website the series of demonstrations, marches, and a student strike in the weeks prior, mostly focused on opposition to the war. Those demonstrations included the destruction of an off-campus building by fire, and 49 gas jets in a lab opened wide in what appeared to be an attempt to burn down or blow up the Chemistry Department, and an effort to ignite gas tanks of three university vehicles at the Physical Plant. The following year, in what also remains an unsolved mystery, huge smoke clouds billowed from Old Main as the historic centerpiece of SIUC’s campus was destroyed by fire believed to be set intentionally. Tensions were boiling here and elsewhere as young people grew increasingly

angry about the war and draft, requiring they serve in an unpopular war even while they were denied the right to vote until age 21.

COLLEGE AS PARENT‌

This time period was the last of the “in loco parentis” doctrine on university campuses. A Latin term that means “in place of parent,” universities had wide latitude to institute strict rules. In Carbondale, that included such regulations that no one under 25 could drive a car, and a curfew for all female students of 10 p.m. Students began to rally against the environment as overly restrictive.

‘VERY EXPLOSIVE TIME’‌

In closing the school, facing years of campus strife that cumulated in May 1970, the board’s resolution stated it was “seriously concerned with the imminent danger to the life and property at that location.” It continued that the board “deplores violence, wars and racism not only on our campus, but across the nation and world. It is concerned with doing all it can to restore an atmosphere of peace in the university and nation.”

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A former Army intelligence officer, Jackson said he had already seen a lot of things in his young life by that time, but seeing the mayhem on campus when he arrived was “surreal.” Old Main burned between the time he interviewed for the job and he moved to Carbondale to start. Jackson said his opposition to the war was growing by that point, but his focus was on protecting order on campus. During the run-up to the campus shutting down, Jackson said he was one of several faculty members charged with protecting buildings from destruction. “Here I am, this brand new professor, walking guard duty at the Business School building and my job was to keep students from burning the building down at night, literally,” Jackson recalled.

‌HARD TO LOOK BACK

Jackson, who taught political science, recalls having Busch as a student, as well as Tom Britton, who attended as an undergraduate from 1966 to 1970. PRESERVING HISTORY‌ Britton said he, as with many students, As a senior, Busch said then-Lt. Gov. became more and more cynical about the Paul Simon appointed him to a comwar during that time. Though his brother mission to study issues surrounding at the time was an Air Force pilot, Britton the campus closure, and ways to heal said the two always understood that they university-city relations. It was in that were doing what they felt was necesrole that Busch collected photographs, sary at the time, and never exchanged mostly from the Daily Egyptian, as well harsh words. as newspaper articles, leaflets, letters Britton recalled it being a difficult and other information, as part of factfinding mission. Upon graduation, Busch time for the nation, and for young people particularly. accepted an administrative job at SIU, He served his senior year in the where he remained until he left for the spring of 1970 as a resident fellow, and University of Maryland in 1988. said that year he learned something he As he was packing, he realized he had all of these files on student activism dur- never expected to as part of his pursuit ing the war, and didn’t want to haul them of higher learning: how to use a cheese out east, but also thought they shouldn’t cloth and water to get tear gas out of people’s eyes. be discarded. That’s how the Thomas Walking around campus, Britton, C. Busch files (from which most of this report) ended up in special collections at who today works for the SIU Foundation as director of development for the Morris Library. Busch donated the collection with a requirement that it be kept SIU School of Law, leading fundraising sealed for 20 years. They were opened up activities for the school from which he graduated in the inaugural class, said for public viewing in 1999. he still sometimes thinks back to those “It was a tough time and I was afraid tumultuous years. that would be lost, because it’s truly “It was just an extraordinary time, a part of the institution,” Busch said, and to try to make sense of it today is adding he’s extremely pleased by the very difficult because you look back and extensiveness of the collection and how it has been cared for. “If you don’t know it was the product of deep and strongly where you came from you’re condemned held feelings and beliefs on the side of students, who were being drafted and to keep committing it.” sent to an unpopular war, and people who wanted to maintain order,” Britton PRESERVING ORDER‌ said. “Conflict was bound to happen, and John Jackson, a visiting professor at I think we learned some lessons from it.” the SIU Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and a former chancellor, had just accepted his first teaching job in 1969 Molly.Parker@TheSouthern.com after earning a doctoral degree in politi- 618-351-5079 On Twitter: @MollyParkerSI cal science from Vanderbilt University.

WHO WE LOST

J‌ ack Campbell, 21, Carterville, PFC Army Harry D Rash, 20, Herrin, PFC USMC Jon M Farner, 21, Bush, LCPL USMC Dennis F Hughes, 20, Herrin, PFC Army Mark L Tripplett, 20, St. Charles, PFC USMC David R Merrell, 24, Marion, 2LT Air Force Richard A Fleming, 27, Johnston City, CAPT Air Force Dale D Lingle, 22, Marion, AA Navy Charles E Moake, 21, Johnston City, SGT Army William A Kuhnke, 23, Herrin, CAPT Army James P Young, 44, Carterville, SSG Army Charles W Rader, 20, Chester, LCPL USMC William K Colegate, 21, Red Bud, PFC USMC Leon C Buehler, 20, Red Bud, PFC Army Daniel K Kettmann, 18, Red Bud, PFC USMC Glenn E Nicholson, 38, Red Bud, PSGT Army James E Cowell, 19, Chester, PFC Army Terry L Douglas, 20, Sparta, PVT Army Alan D Trucano, 21, Steeleville, SGT Army Kenneth C Frazer, 22, Chester, SGT Army Robert J Bowlin, 20, Sparta, SGT Army

Bruce R Welge, 24, Chester, 1LT Army Donald E Parsons, 44, Sparta, LTC Army Ivan I Green, 33, Coulterville, CWO Army Frederick A Allmeyer, 21, Chester, PFC Army Roger D Partington, 28, Sparta, CAPT USMC Frank D Steible, 20, Prairie du Rocher, CPL USMC Leonard A Nitzsche, 20, Ellis Grove, PFC Army Steven W Moll, 21, Evansville, CPL USMC Billy R Caby, 19, Cutler, PFC USMC Cecil E Dorsey, 19, Du Quoin, PFC USMC Glenn Revelle, 20, Du Quoin, LCPL USMC Nolan D Haberman, 19, Willisville, PFC Army Thomas C Daffron, 26, Pinckneyville, CAPT Air Force Edward G Huntley, 20, Du Quoin, SP4 Army William D Settlemire, 23, Mount Vernon, 1LT Army Kenneth D Thomas, 29, Mount Vernon, CAPT Air Force Jack E Crouch, 18, Mount Vernon, LCPL USMC John R Pierce, 21, Bonnie, PFC Army Jerry P Witt, 19, Mount Vernon, SP4 Army Paul E Hale, 26, Nason, SGT Army Stephen J Smith, 24, Mount Vernon, PFC Army Leonard J Richards, 24, Mount Vernon, PFC Army Frederick H Beckmeyer, 24, Mount Vernon, HM3 Navy Edward W Pigg, 21, Mount Vernon, SGT Army

Carl E Pilkington Sr., 41, Mount Vernon, SMAJ Army Ronald W Stewart, 20, Mount Vernon, PFC Army Vince R Kiselewski, 23, Waltonville, EM2 Navy Dean E Clinton, 20, Dix, CWO Army Richard E Githens, 19, Centralia, SP4 Army Robert W Harris, 24, Centralia, LT Navy Mickey R Grable, 19, Centralia, CPL USMC John A Abrams, 20, Centralia, LCPL USMC Billy D Jackson, 19, Centralia, PFC USMC Lowell R Lloyd, 20, Woodlawn, LCPL USMC John M Wike, 19, Centralia, SP4 Army Curtis R Tarkington, 19, Murphysboro, PFC Army Michael P Schwebel, 23, Murphysboro, SP4 Army Michael E O’Guinn, 19, Murphysboro, PFC Army Wilburn H Boyd, 19, Carbondale, LCPL USMC Thomas D Congiardo, 21, Murphysboro, PFC USMC Frank E Reynolds, 21, Murphysboro, SP4 Army William R Hill, 24, Murphysboro, CAPT Army George T Bean, 20, De Soto, PFC Army Ramond W Godwin, 26, Pomona, PFC Army David W Qualls, 20, Murphysboro, PFC Army Gregory L Webb, 19, Carbondale, AA Navy Charles E Hodge, 26, Carbondale, PFC Army Barry L Brown, 25,

Dowell, CAPT Air Force Oliver K Korando, 24, Murphysboro, SGT Army Delbert R Brockmeyer, 20, Campbell Hill, CPL Army Carroll W Eaves, 19, Carbondale, PFC USMC Richard A McGeath, 20, Murphysboro, PFC Army John R Mifflin, 20, Murphysboro, SGT Army Elmer M Shields, 20, Ava/Gorham, PFC Army Frank E Stearns, 28, Carbondale, WO Army David M Cronin, 23, Carbondale, SSGT Army John R Campbell, 24, Carbondale, SGT Army Robert L Fozzard, 32, Murphysboro, SSGT Army Junior R Morgan, 20, Freeman Spur, LCPL USMC Philip G Overturf, 18, West Frankfort, PVT USMC Richard L Kinney, 20, West Frankfort, HN Navy Larry A Garner, 28, Mulkeytown, 1LT Army John L Lavish, 28, West Frankfort, CAPT USMC Kenneth W Tate, 21, Benton, SGT Army Kerry M Bugajsky, 20, Christopher, SP4 Army James T Riley, 32, Zeigler, CPL USMC Roger W Morgan, 18, West Frankfort, CPL Army Michael J Wyman, 18, Buckner, PFC USMC Steven C Webb, 20, Ewing, SP4 Army Ronald D Rogers, 19, West Frankfort, LSPL USMC Larry J Gammon, 20, Benton, SPR Army Walter T Guerin, 23,

Cairo, SGT USMC Bennie L Cross, 23, Cairo, SGT Army Richard W Jones, 19, Cairo, PFC Army John F Terry Jr., 18, Cairo, PVT USMC Marshall D Johnson, 20, Cairo, SSGT Army Robert C Profilet, 27, Cairo, CAPT Air Force Russell R Beeler, 19, Cairo, PFC USMC David L Hall, 39, Harrisburg, FN Navy Glendall E Yates, 33, Harrisburg, TSGT Air Force William R Trusty, 27, Eldorado, PFC Army Cletus D Tuttle, 27, Galatia, SSGT Army Vernon E Belcher, 20, Harrisburg, SP4 Army Tommy L Barnes, 21, Harrisburg, SP5 Army Clifton D Potts, 20, Raleigh, SP4 Army John C Towle, 35, Harrisburg, CAPT Air Force Russell L Williams, 26, Harrisburg, SGT Army Ronald C Davis, 23, Dongoala, PFC Army Robert E Robinson, 32, Anna, LCDR Navy John M Brimm, 20, Jonesboro, SGT Army Bobby D Crawford, 22, Buncombe, SGT Army Bobby K Allen, 19, Jonesboro, SP5 Army Harold E Stanton, 27, Jonesboro, SSG Army Steven W McCloud, 20, Anna, PFC Army Fred E Carrington, 25, Plainfield, WO Army David N Evilsiver, 19, Richview, PFC USMC Merill L Suedmeyer, 19, Nashville, PFC Army John C Javorchik, 20, Nashville, CPL Army Robert E Jones, 20,

Nashville, SP4 Army David O Haake, 23, Nashville, SGT Army Charles F Kerr, 28, Golconda, SSGT Air Force Garry D Davis, 21, Elizabethtown, PFC USMC Larry D Lowery, 28, Cave In Rock, SP6 Army James T McMaster, 21, Rosiclare, SP5 Army Gyorgy J Besze, 26, Old Shawneetown, SP4 Army Ronald A Fromm, 20, Omaha, PFC Army Mose C Hundley, 29, Shawneetown, SSGT Army Robert C Williams, 36, McLeansboro, MAJ Air Force Ronnie L Jones, 21, Pulaski, PFC Army William M Neeley, 18, Olmsted, PFC USMC Joe M Neill, 18, Mounds, PFC Army Phillip G McCall, 20, Grand Chain, PFC USMC Ronald E Showmaker, 20, Mound City, SGT Army James B Artman, 26, Metropolis, 1LT Army Everett D Riepe, 20, Metropolis, PFC USMC Paul M Wooldridge Jr., 21, Metropolis, PFC Army Kenneth L Ford, 27, New Burnside, TSGT Air Force Ronald Lauderdale, 18, Herrin, PFC Army Millard Valerius, 36, Rend City, CAPT Army Gary Jones, 21, Carrier Mills, SP4 Army James Roy, 20, Norris City, SPT Army Donald L Baker, 24, Engergy, SPT Army Ronald Becker, 29, Mount Vernon, LT Navy

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 11

CENTER FOR VIETNAMESE STUDIES WAS CONSTANT SOURCE OF CRITICISM of protest and criticism as the Vietnam War raged on. The official grant award letter to Morris stated that the money was “for the $1 million grant announcement purpose of implementing a project at SIU dated June 30, 1969, to thentitled: “Strengthening within Southern SIU President Delyte Morris spelled out the official agreement Illinois University competency in Vietnamese Studies and Programs Related to between the university and the U.S. Department of International Agency the Economic and Social Development of Vietnam and its Post-War Reconstructo establish The Center for Vietnamese tion.” Studies and Programs. Had the war not been so controversial, During its seven-year existence on campus, the center was a constant source and America’s appetite for fighting in

MOLLY PARKER THE SOUTHERN‌

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Vietnam not been so heartily squelched by this point, the center may otherwise have been considered a coup for the aggressive university president. But eventually, confusion around the Vietnamese studies center, his handling of violent riots on campus and in the city over the Vietnam War and the center, and a controversial decision to construct a nearly $1 million Stone Center on campus that would include living quarters for him and his wife would eventually spell the end of a long tenure for Morris, who is

credited with utilizing his sharp political skills to lead SIU through a major transition from a small teaching college into a reputable research university. Morris’ last day as president of SIU was Aug. 31, 1970. Much of the controversy surrounding the Vietnamese studies center was based on emotions that were running high and misunderstandings about its mission, said John Jackson, a visiting professor with the SIU Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, who began his teaching career at SIU in the political science department in 1969.

Jackson, a former Army Intelligence Officer, said he was not pro-war at the time, and became even more certain later that the United States erred in entering the Vietnam War. But he thought the center was a “totally legit” activity and that it was desirable in the 1970s to “study the kinds of things that led to the war and the divisions between the north and south.” Rumors swirled on campus, though, that the center had a counter-purpose that was not academic in nature. “The idea that it was a CIA front organization was patently ridiculous in my view,” Jackson said, citing one of the common conspiracy theories of the day. But once a conspiracy theory is started, it can be difficult to disprove, Jackson said. In 1977, Larry Lagow, in pursuit of his doctor of philosophy degree, presented a hefty dissertation on the center. His extensive research painted the center as an academic mixed bag, but also showed there was little evidence found to support popular conspiracy theories of the day regarding the role of the center. Most of the angst among students was based on emotions, not facts, he concluded, including a popular rumor that the university was conspiring with the CIA to “perpetuate the U.S. and Western presence in Southeast Asia.” He wrote that at the time of the establishment of the center, the criticism of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia was gaining steam, and that dissent eventually caused the university to abort its original plans to develop technical assistance projects for postwar reconstruction. Early in the life of the center, the university attempted to quiet concerns by changing its name to simply the Center for Vietnamese Studies — dropping the word “programs” from the name — to emphasize its mission as an academic unit, according to a summary of its history on the website of the SIU Special Collections Research Center. In his dissertation, Lagow drew three general conclusions: that the development of the center was a straightforward and serious attempt to establish a center of learning regarding postwar reconstruction of Vietnam; the center made notable achievements, including assembling a vibrant library collection of resources and training students in the language and cultures of Southeast Asia at a critical time; and finally, despite these accomplishments, the center did not develop into a vigorous base for post-war reconstruction technical assistance, as was originally planned.

Those plans were thwarted as the Vietnamese studies center became a focal point for anti-war protests. Lagow wrote that “speeches, teach-ins, demonstrations, campus disruptions and bomb threats, all eventually became common place.” Lagow concluded: “It seems safe to observe that no unit of the university, now in operation over 100 years, has been more controversial than the Center for Vietnamese Studies.” Lagow, in his study, explored the various layers of criticism of the center, some based on intellectual and philosophical beliefs, and others based seemingly in pure emotions. He said a “first level of criticism” involved a belief held by some that the center, in seeking to provide, for a fee, expertise and manpower needed to achieve national objectives, was inappropriate for a serious academic institution. The concern was that the center was not primarily concerned with, as a university program should be, the “scholarly

acquisition and dissemination of knowledge concerning Vietnam.” Another layer of critics questioned whether the university was up to the task it had taken on. Lagow wrote that some at the time argued SIU lacked the expertise to serve as a national hub for Vietnamese studies. The third level of criticism, he said, was the “bandwagon effect,” whereby people heard the intellectual arguments against the center, and caught up in the anti-war sentiment, “they were stimulated emotionally to join a crusade.” Many accusations were made during the heated debates regarding the center, many of them not true, he concluded. That included statements made by some that grant money for the center was used, in part, to pay for the $1 million Stone Center that was to be Morris’s residence had he not stepped down as president over that very controversy. As for the theory that the CIA was involved in the center, Lagow wrote that such a charge could neither be proven or

disproven fully. “The many revelations of the Watergate scandal lead us to assume that there is little or nothing which is impossible,” he wrote. “In such a climate, everything and anything may be suspect. However, there is little to be gained in pursuing such questions …” He also wrote that “there is no convincing evidence that the establishment of the center was a scheme on the part of AID, the CIA or SIU officials.” The report continued: “While the center was not likely a scheme, it was calculated to continue the American presence in Vietnam, and was based on the assumption that the American point of view would prevail … Research, training, and service projects in Vietnam would have been performed at the pleasure of the foreign policy of the U.S. government and with the concurrence of the U.S. dominated government of Saigon.” The center closed just seven years after its opening as U.S. AID funds ran dry and an attempt to self-support through center fundraising fell flat.

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 13

A napalm strike erupts in a fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in South Vietnam, 1966 during the Vietnam War. ASSOCIATED PRESS‌

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A Vietnamese infantryman jumps from the protection of a rice paddy dike for another short charge during a run and fire assault on Viet Cong Guerrillas entrenched in Riceland’s in an area 15 miles west of Saigon on April 4, 1965. When field and surrounding brush line was finally taken, Vietnamese had suffered a loss of 12 men dead or wounded, Straw stack fire at center was set by Guerrillas as a distraction. HORST FAAS‌

JOHN F. URWILLER‌

While Under Secretary of State George W. Ball delivered the main address at historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1966, pickets of the Committee for Non-Violent Action paraded across the street behind police barricades. About 400 demonstrators participated with several minor skirmishes resulting and police made a few arrests.

HENRI HUET‌

In this 1966 file photo, U.S. Army helicopters providing support for U.S. ground troops fly into a staging area fifty miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam. The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, to communist troops from the north.

HORST FAAS‌

One trooper sprawls in the flooded swamp as other Vietnamese Government Soldiers walk through the water after landing from U.S. army Helicopters near CA Mau Peninsula in South Vietnam on Sept. 15, 1963. The Soldiers were landed to pursue communist Viet Cong Guerrillas who had attacked a Vietnamese outpost.

President Lyndon Johnson confers at the White House March 31, 1965, with Gen. Maxwell Taylor, U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. The President said he spent “a very profitable hour” with the ambassador in Johnson’s office. ASSOCIATED PRESS‌

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 15

WAR RECRUITER REMEMBERS HIS YEARS AS ‘ANGEL OF DEATH’ Spiller has published 15 books, most about the effects of war

published in 1992. Since then, he has had 14 books published, some looking at true crimes by the former Williamson County sheriff, but others focused on war and those who fought in them, including Iraq, Afghanistan and World War II. Spiller was born and raised in NICK MARIANO Marion. He graduated from high school THE SOUTHERN‌ there in 1963. He served as sheriff from 1982 to 1989 and taught criminal justice he recruiter looked at their and political science at John A. Logan innocent faces and went numb, realizing then he could no longer Community College. Three of the books are on Vietnam, bury the same boys he recruited mostly detailing his own experiences. just months before. He could One of them, “Scars of Vietnam,” no longer look into the faces of parents focuses on the personal accounts of vetof boys he’d recruited to tell them their erans and their families. child was dead. So, he left the job withReactions to death notifications were out saying a word. always the same, he said. He delivered And he stayed silent until years later between 30 to 40 notifications, not when he decided to write about the counting those involving the wounded. experience. Each time, he watched families It was 1970 when Harry Spiller came ripped apart. to the realization, three years after he One of the worst involved a direct began recruiting for the U.S. Marines rocket hit on a young soldier. Both his and the war in Vietnam. As part of the job, Spiller was tasked with the dual role parents worked at the glove factory in of delivering notifications of those killed Anna where the message was delivered individually to each parent. There were or injured while in service. no remains. He also arranged funerals, utilizing “The first thing the father wanted servicemen as pallbearers and for rifle to know was when we were going to squads. Usually, a high school student bring him home. We had to tell him, would be recruited to play taps. we’re not,” Spiller said. “That was really Spiller had served two tours in Viettough. We ended up having a memonam, the first before his recruitment rial service.” assignment and the second afterward, Sometime after, remains were discovwhen he decided he could no longer ered, and a funeral was held. serve as an “angel of death.” Discharged in 1973, Spiller had It wasn’t until 1983, after Spiller saw planned to be a career serviceman and a movie that wouldn’t let him ignore his memories, when he decided to share to work as a recruiter was one pathway to that goal. He considered himself a his experiences as an author. Spiller patriot when he enlisted five days after does not recall the name of the movie, depicting the life of a lieutenant killed in his high school graduation. At 19, he Vietnam, leaving a wife to live on with- wanted to be a Marine. But the work in recruitment, assigned out him. to Southern Illinois and southeast “For whatever reason, that just kind Missouri, became too much. In his of sparked that whole thing,” Spiller own words, it was devastating. It was said, of becoming a writer. “The more while standing in front of a high school I thought about it, the more I felt like assembly in 1970 that the realization I had to try and write about it. When I hit him. sat down and actually started to write, “I started making casualty notificait was like somebody plugged me into a tions on guys I had enlisted,” Spiller typewriter.” Spiller’s first book “Death Angel” was said. “That’s when it started really

‌T

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“Vietnam veterans were the best this country had during a bad time. If there is one thing I want my kids to remember the most is, when my country called, I answered.”

getting to me. I started taking it personally. I remember feeling like, I am killing these guys.” In one small Missouri rural community, a town of some 900 people, he had recruited eight young men for the war. He delivered death notifications for four of them. Two of them came two weeks apart, Spiller said. “Even today, I still live with that,” he said. Knowing they would have likely been recruited had he never entered the picture does not matter to Spiller. Rather than suppressing the memories, Spiller has found writing the books therapeutic. In 2000, he and his son went to Washington, D.C., to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. As Spiller explains in his third book on Vietnam, father and son together confronted and partially resolved his anguish. Today, Spiller has a deeper, perhaps complex, understanding of the war compared to when he enlisted. The mixture of call to duty and the public lashing out against soldiers as they returned home — unjustified in Spiller’s view — complicates the perspective. But when it comes to soldiers, then and now, alive or dead, one simple truth remains, Spiller said. He has told his son that he will not serve in the military. He has told his son that he has done two tours, one for himself and one for his son. He later changed his mind, and his son did enlist for the U.S. Navy. Spiller said he was proud of his son because of it. “They did what their country asked them to do,” Spiller said. “When we get to the point where we have people not willing to do that, then you are not going to be free anymore.” He adds: “Vietnam veterans were the best this country had during a bad time. If there is one thing I want my kids to remember the most is, when my country called, I answered.” njmariano7@gmail.com 618-499-4597

TEACHERS: STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN THE WAR ON RISE SARAH HALASZ GRAHAM THE SOUTHERN‌

‌I

n the 40 years since the fall of Saigon, the history of the Vietnam War — its causes, main military events and cultural impact — has earned a prominent place in American history books. For the Southern Illinois teachers who teach the war, not much has changed in instructional content over the years. Students always have shown interest in learning about protest culture, and events such as the Tet Offensive and the My Lai Massacre remain focal points. But as students become further removed from the event itself, interest

in the war — and students’ perception of it — has changed, teachers said. “What I’ve found with Vietnam is they don’t know anything about it, and they’re so eager to listen that that’s usually a topic that, when I’m doing a lesson, they really are engaged,” said Brett Diel, an assistant principal at Carterville High School who taught American history for about 10 years. These days, Diel said, it’s less likely for students to have relatives who fought in the war. A grandparent, an uncle or a neighbor might have served, but students typically enter the classroom with less knowledge to start with. “It had some major events tied to it,

some major effects, and they don’t really know anything about it,” he said. With improvements in technology and the increasing availability of primary sources, methods of instruction have become more interactive, too, further piquing students’ interest. “Maybe in late ’80s, you would teach it like a story,” said Dan Baker, a history teacher who recently retired from Murphysboro High School after a 27-year career. “But now, you can go find different sources from different sides.” Presidential communiqués, U.S. State Department reports and local news footage offer rich context. In his last year teaching, Diel took

his class to visit the American Veterans Traveling Tribute, an 80 percent scaled model of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, set up on the campus of Southern Illinois University in September 2014. The war typically is taught late in spring. Diel said it’s well worth the wait. “It’s just something I feel needs to be taught,” he said. “I think a lot of times it’s skipped just because of the timing. I’ve been through that crunch, but it needs to be done.” sarah.graham@thesouthern.com 618-351-5076 @SHalaszGraham

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 17

DRAFTED SOLDIER RECALLS MEMORIES FROM VIETNAM WAR

Calvin Scott holds a photo of himself in Vietnam and a newspaper clipping noting his service in Vietnam in 1965-1966.

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BYRON HETZLER PHOTOS, THE SOUTHERN‌

“It affected many guys in many ways. I don’t know how I would have acted if I would have come under fire. But, I know the impact of just being over there, and I still get emotional just talking about it.”

DUSTIN DUNCAN THE SOUTHERN‌

alvin Scott doesn’t shy away from the fact that, from the time leading up to serving in the Vietnam War and until he got home, he was scared. Scott, 71, has lived in Carbondale at the same address for the past 63 years. He was born in Tamms, but moved to the home of Southern Illinois University with his family at age 8. After graduating from Attucks High School in 1962, he worked at the Jackson County Rehab and Care Center for six months and then worked at the former Holden Hospital in Carbondale. In 1965, at 21, Scott received a letter in the mail telling him that he had been drafted into the U.S. Army. He said he didn’t know what to think at first. He said he knew there was a war happening, but he didn’t even know where Vietnam was. “At that the time, the war was starting to get bad and the biggest thought in everybody’s mind was what was going on over there,” Scott said. “I was scared.” “When I got the letter I wasn’t anxious to go. I really didn’t want to go, but I didn’t have a choice.” He said he can remember his father driving him to Murphysboro to meet his service officer and then, moments later, a bus showed up and took him and other drafted soldiers to St. Louis. He did his basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, and went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for more training. After eight weeks at Fort Sill, he came home for two weeks and was shipped off to a base near Oakland, California, to prepare for his trip to Vietnam. “While on the plane leaving California, I was even more scared,” Scott said. “We didn’t know what the situation was going to be. We were just hoping and praying to make it back. We wanted everything to go well.” His tour in Vietnam was from December 1965 to November 1966. He was part of a gun crew in Phuc Vinh, about 37 miles south of Saigon. He maintained and fired a 105mm Howitzer to provide support for the 127th Infantry. Although Scott typically was not on the front lines, he still recalls a close call or two. He said his crew was supposed to go out one morning, but the situation changed, and his sergeant told him and

Calvin Scott of Carbondale reflects on experiences serving in the Army during the Vietnam War.

another solider they didn’t have to go. “I was scared, so I wasn’t going to argue with him,” Scott said. The next day his crew got hit with a strike, Scott said. “We lost our sergeant,” he said. “I have seen his name on the wall.” The stories have been well

documented about how American soldiers were treated upon their arrival back from Vietnam. Scott said he knew guys that were spit on, had thing thrown at them and cussed at. But Scott’s arrival home wasn’t a terrible experience, he said, because he had his family and his church waiting on him.

“I have heard some of my colleagues were treated terrible, but I wasn’t,” he said. “Maybe that was because of the small town.” He said he wished there was a better reception for the soldiers returning for Vietnam, but he is glad to see they are starting to get the recognition they deserve. “I don’t have anything against that,” Scott said. “However, I am glad to do that for the guys who have served now. Anybody who has served and has come back deserves to be treated well.” The impact of the war is still something he sees on other soldiers who served in Vietnam. “It affected many guys in many ways. I don’t know how I would have acted if I would have come under fire,” he said. “But, I know the impact of just being over there, and I still get emotional just talking about it.” He said he is thankful for recent veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan because they now have places where they can talk about what happened and help is available. “They didn’t have that when we came back from Vietnam,” Scott said. “We had to rely on one another.” After a short time of relaxation after the war, Scott went to work for the city of Carbondale. He worked in the Public Works Department for more than 30 years. He retired from the city in 2003. Scott can be found regularly playing the bugle at memorial events throughout Southern Illinois. dustin.duncan@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823 on twitter: @zd2000 ‌

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 19

A large crowd was on hand for the grand opening ceremony for the new Center for Behavioral Health at the Marion Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Tuesday morning. The facility will start seeing patients on Monday. BYRON HETZLER PHOTOS, THE SOUTHERN ‌

VIETNAM VETS O PAVE WAY TO BETTER MENTAL HEALTH CARE

VA, within the system itself, as well as culturally beyond VA care, Denman said. Denman is now one of those care providers at the Marion VA’s new $8.3 ne legacy of the Vietnam War million Center for Behavioral Health, and the soldiers who fought in it opened in July to serve as a single locamight be a greater understanding and response to post-combat tion for a wide range of services from suicide prevention to help for veterans mental health problems. who are homeless. Consider, at the Marion VA Medical Previously, separate services were Center alone, there are now more than located at multiple sites, forcing veterans 150 behavioral health providers caring to go from one place to another for the for veterans compared to one psycholocare they needed. gist in the mid-1980s. The number of Even the diagnosis of post-traumatic providers has tripled since as recent as stress disorder is relatively new, first 2007, perhaps in response to veterans defined in 1980. For one, Denman said, returning from Iraq. “It’s actually changed a lot,” said Jona- to call PTSD a mental illness is a disservice to veterans. Their response to than Denman, who began training with combat – or any person’s response the VA as a psychologist in 2001. to assaults or disasters – is anything Vietnam veterans have played a sigbut abnormal. nificant role in the development of the

NICK MARIANO THE SOUTHERN‌

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“At some level, they kind of paid the price for the development of what we have today in terms of the VA and the resources we have.” With the diagnosis came new methods of treatment that did not exist prior to Vietnam. For World War I veterans and what was then referred to as shellshock, the recommended treatment tended to be simple rest. World War II brought re-organization of battle units to lessen fatigue. “Absolutely, Vietnam veterans played a huge role in even being studied at some level to just try and figure out are these commons symptoms that we see,” Denman said. That impact and the treatment of PTSD can be seen among veterans and the general population, according to the National Center for PTSD. About 7 or 8 percent of people will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Among Vietnam veterans, 15 percent were diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study in the 1980s. It is estimated about 30 percent of Vietnam veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime, the center reports. Treatments can include cognitive therapy to understand how thoughts about the trauma cause stress and exposure therapy to lessen fears around the trauma, according to the center. There is more, such as medication, but as essential as treatment is the stymied cultural stigma once attached to mental illnesses, PTSD, depression and bi-polar disorder. At one time, there was very little in the way of diagnosis, treatment, or medical assessments, assuming claims were either being filed or accepted as service connected, Denman said. That has changed, dramatically, with post-deployment assessments and behavioral medicine records that give providers a greater first step in administering care. “I can see all of that,” Denman said. “It is a stark contrast.” Past stigma once was crippling to those who needed help but refused it

Don Hutson, director of the Marion Veterans Affairs Medical Center, addresses the crowd during grand opening ceremonies for the facility’s new Center for Behavioral Health on Thursday morning in Marion.

because of negative views of mental illness or of asking for help. One of Denman’s patients only recently returned to the VA for help, having sworn it off 25 years ago. There, too, veterans have contributed to shifting public views about mental illness and how it is treated, Denman said. Along with it, he added, has been a shift in how the public views veterans of yesterday and today. “At some level, they kind of paid the price for the development of what we have today in terms of the VA and the resources we have,” Denman said of Vietnam vets. Marion VA spokeswoman Beth Lamb

noted that many older veterans have come forward as advocates for behavioral health services, making themselves available to younger generations. “I have heard a lot of them say, ‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to them,’” she said. “It is a cultural thing. It wasn’t just the VA. It’s how people accepted and treated things.” Lamb referred to her own grandfataher, a WWII veteran, who never spoke of his experience. Richard Clemens, chief administrator for behavioral health at the Marion VA and a U.S. Navy veteran, said even the new Behavioral Science building is

indicative of mental illness treatment as a priority. Services have not necessarily been added. Rather, they have been consolidated into the single site, an upgrade from smaller, outdated annexes. That, in itself, is a message of change when it comes to the mental health, he said. Denman agreed. “What I have enjoyed here that I haven’t enjoyed here before is that I really am proud of having our veterans come in and feeling like: This is for you,” he said. njmariano7@gmail.com 618-499-4597

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 21

Fighting stereotypes

Stephanie Esters The Southern‌

orty-seven years after he said goodbye to many of the young men he’d spent a year fighting alongside in the mud and jungles of Vietnam, Mike Gunter said “hello” to them again. The 66-year-old met up with a handful of them Sept. 1 in Washington, D.C., during an annual get-together of warriors from the Hotel Company 2nd Battalion 26th Marines. In previous years, every time he’d considered going, he talked himself out of it, not wanting to deal with the range of emotions that he was sure would emerge. But seeing the five men from his rifle and machine squad of about 20 was good. The highlight of the reunion was a ceremony honoring the 73 Marines from the 2nd Battalion Hotel Company who were killed during the war. “For the most part, these guys have done really well” in life, Gunter said of the group he met in D.C. They are far from what some might think they’d be: mentally ill or psychotic, homeless or desperate or drugaddicted or in any other socially undesirable state. That latter perspective of the Vietnam War vet, he says, was created almost singlehandedly by the media and then perpetrated by Hollywood movies. He said the Vietnam War was the first major war fought on televisions in America’s living rooms. “The media portrayed us to be these drug-crazed, long-haired hippies,” Gunter said. “The media portrayed us to be something that we weren’t.” Everything that the media projected grew larger than life, fostered upon a group that felt very vulnerable when it returned, Gunter said. The alienation they felt only added to the trauma some of them were forced to deal with quietly, for years, alone, he said. He said the first time he felt that it was OK to say he was a Vietnem Vet was 15 years ago, after a disagreement with his son, who confronted him about some of the issues he’d faced in the war. The next day, Gunter said he went to the VA and found that for the past 30 years that

Mike Gunter talks about his experiences as a Marine during the Vietnam War and after returning home.

Page 22 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 VIETNAM WAR: 40 years later

Byron Hetzler, The Southern‌

maybe everybody else didn’t have issues — maybe he did. Then, there were those like his wife of four and one-half years, Sheri, who told Gunter she was part of that “silent majority,” the ones who did not oppose what was being said or perpetrated because of the unpopularity of the war. “‘We didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to rock the boat’,” Gunter said his wife told him. “‘We just wanted to fit in.’” In fact, Gunter recited several bits of information about the Vietnam War veteran: zz In 1994, the Vietnam veteran was 3 percent of those unemployed in the United States.‌ zz The Vietnam vet actually spent longer in active combat, averaging 240 days compared to 40 days for the WWII veteran.‌ zz African Americans were 12.5 percent of the Vietnam War population, comparable to their numbers in the larger U.S. population during that time (11.1 percent in 1970, according to Census data).‌ zz The average income for a Vietnam veteran tends to be higher than their non-veteran counterpart.‌ zz Vietnam War vets are represented in Congress and in other elected offices and have served locally as sheriffs, police officers and owned and led businesses. They have been pillars of their local communities, holding down jobs for long stints of time and taking care of their families.‌ One of those Gunter points to is Harry Spiller, a former Williamson County sheriff, whose job as a Marine recruiter included informing parents and other family members that their loved one had died in the war. Spiller writes about that in his memoir “Death Angel: A Vietnam Memoir of a Bearer of Death messages to Families.” After returning from the war, Gunter worked for 33 years for the U.S. Postal Service and was a representative with the American Postal Workers Union. “So the Vietnam vet melded into society better than most people think,” he said. These days, Gunter has taken on a different fight, that of ensuring all vets receive the government benefits they should, especially for PTSD and “presumptive illnesses” associated with Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed by the U.S. forces to destroy Vietnam’s dense jungles; it was later tied to a host of physical and psychological problems. It was when Gunter retired from the U.S. Postal Service, he said, that he was

Byron Hetzler, The Southern‌

An assortment of memorabilia from Mike Gunter’s time in the Marine Corps and Vietnam adorns the walls of his home in Herrin.

able to effectively face his Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. “It’s been a lifetime ago — but it’s also been last night,” he said. One perception that several veterans seemed to agree on, however, was that they felt a slight cold shoulder from some older vets who had fought in previous wars. Bill Rice, senior commander of VFW 1301, one of the largest in the area, said he hasn’t encountered any stereotypes from his Vietnam War experience. He did several tours, about four months at a time, aboard the U.S.S. Princeton in the waters off the coast of Vietnam. He was a 21-year-old when he was drafted by the U.S. Army, but opted instead to enroll in the U.S. Navy. When he was discharged in 1969, he went to

California, where his wife and three children were, and they drove back crosscountry to Southern Illinois. “I’ve never had any problem with them calling me baby killer or anything like that. I come home to Southern, Illinois, and everybody welcomed me back.” It would be more than another two decades, though, before he joined his town’s Veterans of Foreign War. “When we first come back, it was kind of the deal where we weren’t (involved with the VFW),” Rice said. “The World War II and the Korean War veterans, they didn’t really try to pull us in to join, which we kind of felt like we were being shunned.” “Well, they just didn’t seem like they were real enthused about getting us to join,” Rice said.

Gunter agreed. “The Vietnam vet was not looked upon as a true warrior,” not the same way that fighters from WWII or the Korean War were, Gunter said. “In my opinion, America has never had a better warrior.” Gunter is adamant that the type of treatment he and other vets experienced will not happen to another vet. He leans forward a bit in his chair to make that point. “No longer will Americans abandon another generation of warriors, ‘cause we won’t allow it,” he said. But, Gunter added, “Who am I to say someone’s war was worse than mine or mine was worse than theirs?” stephanie.esters@thesouthern.com 618-351-5805

VIETNAM WAR: 40 years later Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 23

VETERAN MARCHED FOR PEACE AFTER WAR Marion VA Medical Center, she said. “The war did take his health, but he had another 50 years that a lot of those guys didn’t,” Field said. “He got to have atherine Field does not know children; he got to take care of his family what caused the multiple scleand see his kids grow up. He got to see a rosis that killed her husband, grandson being born.” E.G. Hughes, in December. He Many, many others did not have was 67. that chance, their names etched on a It could have been Agent Orange that led to the central nervous system disease. memorial wall, the Carbondale resident, It could have been jungle fever that trig- 60, notes. Too many names, Field said, in part gered what might have been a dormant responsible for leading the couple to virus. After all, the cause of MS remains protest all wars as members of the Peace unknown, according to the National Coalition of Southern Illinois. Together, Multiple Sclerosis. What Field does know is that whatever they edited the group’s newsletter for 20 years. brought on the disease, it was related The couple met in 1984 at a peace to his service in Vietnam, documented rally while she attended Western Illinois by diagnosis from care providers at the

NICK MARIANO THE SOUTHERN‌

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University in Macomb. Hughes was a peace activist at the time. “It was something we all did as a family,” she said, still active in weekly protests in Carbondale’s downtown, held since 2001 when the United States entered Afghanistan until about two years ago when Hughes and others struggled physically to attend. Hughes spent two tours in the war as a volunteer in the U.S. Army and, according to Field, would be the first to say his experience was “easier” than most others. It was the patriotic thing to do, she said of her late, decorated husband. “He believed in his country. He believed in military service. He wasn’t crazy about the war, but nobody was. “It was only afterward that he began to

think about his experience and the things that he did,” she said of a shift in perspective that might have arisen from his pursuit of a degree in philosophy. “He came to the conclusion that the war in Vietnam was not a just war,” she said. A stay-at-home father, Hughes also dedicated his life to tutoring Asian students as a way to give back in exchange for what was taken, she said. While his illness lingered because of the war, his future was paved because of it, too, she said. “His life going forward was on preventing future wars,” Field said. njmariano7@gmail.com 618-499-4597 ‌

TALKING WITH VIETNAM VETERANS:

IT TAKES TIME AND TRUST

the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne, based in Okinawa, Japan. His brigade was the first major U.S. Army ground formation deployed in f you want to have a conversation Vietnam in 1965. Kobler was there with a Vietnam veteran, it takes two in the beginning, serving from 1965 things: Time and trust. And, that’s to 1966. Kobler is a long-time law only if you know them well. enforcement officer in Southern Illi“There are things about my nois. He was Williamson County Sheriff experience in Vietnam that even my from 1978 to 1982. He also was comwife doesn’t know,” said Mike Gunter, mander of VFW Post 1301 in Marion 66. “There are certain things that I will from 1995 to 1996 and from 2009 never tell anyone.” to 2013. Gunter, of Herrin, served in the “The problem is — and there’s not 26th Marines in Vietnam from 1968 to one Vietnam veteran who doesn’t feel 1969, “carrying a machine gun all over this way — we were treated badly when that place” during four of the war’s 17 we got back. No one really wanted to major campaigns. He was wounded in know anything about it,” Kobler said. November 1969 and was awarded the THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO‌ “We were proud of representing Purple Heart. World War II veteran Harry Kesler received a medal from Marion VFW Post 1301 Commander the United States and proud of havAll these years later, he still isn’t par- Jerald Kobler during a ceremony in September 2009. Kesler passed away Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010. ing served in the military, but it was ticularly fond of talking about his expeoffensive, and it led us to keep things to riences, but he does it to reach other ourselves and among each other.” veterans. “Here’s why I talk to you,” As a result of that, Kobler said there he said. “I’ve got brothers and sisters is one way to start a conversation with out there who are lost — they need to a Vietnam veteran, which will serve know there are people just like them, to you well when trying to strike up a let them know they aren’t alone. If my conversation: Offer a sincere thanks for message gets through to even one of my their service. brothers, to go to the VA and get help, That, he said, will go a long way in then I’m satisfied with that. That’s why their eyes, because many of them were I talk to people about it, as much as never properly thanked. I can.” If you meet someone, and it is Earning a Vietnam vet’s trust is probrevealed to you that this person is a ably the most important necessary eleVietnam veteran, a few questions are ment, if he or she is going to open up. fine, Kobler said. “There has to be a mutual respect “You should feel OK asking about brothers,” Gunter said. “We are the only an individual and that war experiences and trust between individuals, and the affect each person differently. Secondly, some simple facts,” he said. “Ask them ones who truly know what it was like. veteran has to want to share with you,” don’t behave as if you know everything when they were in Vietnam, what Gunter said. “But if you can’t develop a And we understand one thing among branch of the military they served with, that happened in Vietnam. ourselves: We are individuals who trust, then you’ve got nothing.” “There’s no way someone who wasn’t where they were stationed. You might would give their lives for one another Often, Gunter said, veterans don’t even ask if they keep in touch with and their country. There is no bond like there can possibly understand what want to talk about it because it’s too some of their buddies. Those questions happened there,” Gunter said. “Don’t that one.” painful to even recollect a few memoshouldn’t bother them.” Gunter offered advice, though, if you behave in a way that comes across as if ries, let alone discuss them with someyou know; you don’t. And, learn a little know a Vietnam veteran well. one who wasn’t there. There is one bit of the history of that war. Know First of all, he said, is to understand exception, though. cara.recine@thesouthern.com 618-351-5075 that not all experiences were the same, something about it.” “We really don’t want to relive any Jerald Kobler, 70, of Marion, was with On Twitter: Cara_Recine that each veteran must be treated as of it, except, maybe with one of our CARA RECINE

THE SOUTHERN‌

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“The problem is — and there’s not one Vietnam veteran who doesn’t feel this way — we were treated badly when we got back. No one really wanted to know anything about it. We were proud of representing the United States and proud of having served in the military, but it was offensive, and it led us to keep things to ourselves and among each other.”

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 25

FRONT PAGE NEWS

The front page of The Southern Illinoisan on March 7, 1965 tells the story of a “Herrin Hero” who had returned from the “Viet Nam” War.

The front page of The Southern Illinoisan on Feb. 1, 1968, shows what would become one of the most iconic images of the Vietnam War.

Page 26 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER

The front page of The Southern Illinoisan on May 8, 1970 detailed “the worst night of violence and vandalism in connection with Southern Illinois University antiwar protests ... when tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of 1,500 or more people in downtown Carbondale.” On Monday, Feb. 12, 1973, The Southern Illinoisan reported on several prisoners of war who had returned home.

On Dec. 27, 1971, the front page of The Southern Illinoisan shows veterans seizing the Statue of Liberty to protest military drug treatment policies.

The front page of The Southern Illinoisan on Aug. 5, 1971, declares: “U.S. offensive role in war ends.”

VIETNAM WAR: 40 YEARS LATER Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Page 27

we take pride in serving those who have served our country. Our record shows it: For the sixth year in a row, Victory Media named SIU a “Military Friendly School” for 2015 in its military-based G.I. Jobs magazine, and in 2014 we received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Veteran Education for the second time. Our Veterans’ Center stands ready to make the transition to academic life as hassle-free as possible for all current and former service members. This commitment is nothing new to us. We were one of the first universities to offer off-campus academic programs to military personnel, beginning in 1973, and our dedication to serving student veterans – as well as students on active duty – remains as steadfast as ever. At SIU, it’s our duty to help you succeed.