PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: Connecting with a veteran

I was raised in a military family. My dad’s army career lasted twenty-one years. We spent most of his career stationed in Fort Gordon (Augusta), Georgia and my mother’s home country of Germany. But in 1968, Dad was deployed to Vietnam for a tour of duty. A duty that would end with him decorated with the bronze star medal twice and the purple heart once.

A son’s curiosity

I don’t recall my dad leaving for Vietnam but at five years old I have some vivid memories while he was gone, including the day he returned. My uncle Dennis, mom and new sister Stephanie, who was born while he was in Vietnam, went to greet him at the airport in Grand Junction, CO.

I don’t believe my older brother Tom and sister Leone went. I recall pointing a large grassy area that I could see from the terminal and asking my uncle if that would be the place my dad would land in his parachute. “I believe they’re going to give him a break today and let him land with the plane.”, he replied. He looked at my mom with a big grin and let out a chuckle. This began a son’s curiosity about his father’s time at war.

Over the years I would ask dad about his time at war with no real answer or details offered to me. His medals sat in a foot locker in our home and we kids would put them on and wear them when we played army and such. Looking back, he seemed to have no interest in his service in Vietnam but he was a devoted soldier for anther ten years until he retired as a First Sargent in 1978.

When I was ten, I asked him to tell me a story about a battle he was in or something brave he did.

He told me the following; The Viet Cong stole a truck loaded with important supplies from us. My buddy and I snuck into their camp and jumped in the truck and took off. Bullets were flying all around us. Some hit the back of the truck but we made it to camp in one piece and I am happy to report not a single beer can in the back of the truck was hit. Of course, he was pulling my leg and so it went over the years. It was very frustrating. Even after I joined the Army I still didn’t get the answers I was looking for from him.

Finally, some progress

In 2009, while working at the Montrose Daily Press in Colorado a replica of the Vietnam Wall came to town. We decided to publish a special to the press honoring the areas Vietnam vets. We reached out to our readers for their photos and stories about their experience. We were overwhelmed with the response.

So, I reached out to dad and asked if he would be willing to be one of the veterans we featured in the piece. Of course, the answer was no. So, I asked if we could at least publish some of his photos he brought back with him. “Sure”, he said “stop by tomorrow night.” I think he sensed my frustration because when I arrived he asked me to grab a book off of his dining room table. “Read the names that I circled”, he said. Albert Dahl and Michael Dahl were the only two names he had circled in this year book looking piece. “Who were they?” I asked. “Two young men who were underneath my charge that didn’t make it home” was his answer.

Albert and Michael were just kids that became fast friends in the 125th signal corp, a unit attached to the 25th Infantry division during the Vietnam conflict.

The 125th would rotate personnel on to the hotly contested Black Virgin Mountain (Nui Ba Den).

A key communications location during the war. The US controlled it but the men assigned to the mountain were under attack every night. Some nights more so than others. One of those nights was a battle later dubbed the Black Virgin Mountain Massacre. On May 13th, 1968, the enemy became a little braver than most nights and launched an all-out assault on our troops.

Hunkered down in bunkers for the night they heard the attack that started at the helipad and decisions were made in the moment. “Some ran down the hill and hid behind rocks, but don’t judge them Dennis, they did what they felt they had to do to survive. Some stayed in their bunkers and some went to where the enemy was.” Dad went to were the enemy was and was awarded with a bullet in his stomach. Fragments of the bullet would never be removed. It caused some minor discomfort over the years but he never let on that it bothered him.

Of the just over one hundred American soldiers that were on Nui Ba Den that night 24 were killed and 35 were wounded including dad and two were taken as POW’s. So why did he circle Albert and Michael in his yearbook. “These two did everything together. They kept to themselves and had each other’s backs. They were good boys.” “We had a hot meal flown in a couple of days before the attack and the rule was that you don’t go to the mess hall after dark. I found them lying together on the trail by the mess hall together the next morning. They were a bloody mess.” “I guess they couldn’t resist going for a midnight snack.”

He said in a tone of regret. Those were his guys and in his mind, he let them down. We would have many conversations after that about his time in Vietnam. I would pepper him with questions on our road trips for his chemo therapy treatments and he would freely answer them.

We lost dad in April of 2013. Often he would say that he didn’t talk about Vietnam because he didn’t leave anything there.

He may have not left anything there but he sure carried those two boys with him for the next 40 plus years. As I keep carrying him. He is missed by that little boy who always looked up to him.

Thank you for reading the Frontiersman and Happy Veterans Day.