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Army veteran Leo Zerhusen and his wife, Norah, find a name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Zerhusen is among almost 60 Vietnam servicemen who were recognized this Memorial Day weekend by Spotswood Baptist Church in Spotsylvania County.
Vietnam veterans salute the flag or simply stand reverently as the national anthem
Larry McClung makes a rubbing of his own name on the memorial. Another American with McClung's first and last names and middle initial was killed in action.
Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks was the last stop on a Washington trip organized to honor Vietnam veterans.
Veteran Bill Lee Hays served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. |
EFORE THIS WEEKEND, no one had ever thanked Reed Bolick for his service in Vietnam.
The retired Marine colonel took the lack of gratitude in stride. He knew how unpopular the Vietnam War had been, and he saw plenty of fellow servicemen who tried to put the military experience behind them.
"You came home, and you quickly took off your uniform," said the 59-year-old Spotsylvania County resident. "You were not welcome."
That's why Bolick was particularly moved on Friday, when he and almost 60 other veterans from the Fredericksburg area visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
A volunteer walked up to Bolick, gave him a hug and thanked him for what he'd done for his country.
It was the first acknowledgment he'd gotten--but it certainly wouldn't be the last.
Throughout this weekend, members of Spotswood Baptist Church have given Vietnam War veterans the homecoming many never received.
Friday's trip to the memorial wall was the beginning of a three-day celebration that ends this morning with a service at the Spotsylvania church.
The event marks the third year the church has honored veterans on Memorial Day weekend. Korean War veterans were special guests last year, and World War II veterans the year before.
Today's service will be a little different. Instead of being seated onstage, the former soldiers and sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel will be the last ones to enter the sanctuary.
"We want them to march into the auditorium to a standing ovation," said Sherry Rauscher, one of 17 committee members who planned the events. "This is the one group that never had a parade or anything."
The veterans certainly got their due this weekend, 31 years after the war ended.
The celebration began Friday afternoon, when three chartered buses and almost 25 motorcyclists left Lafayette Boulevard for the trek north to the nation's capital.
A state police escort blocked the right lane of Interstate 95 so the entourage could get onto the highway.
"That's more than we ever got when we came back from Vietnam," said Rick Gustavus of King George County. "They didn't stop anything for us."
People on at least one of the buses cheered at the VIP treatment.
It was just the beginning.
The group of veterans and wives, church members and bikers numbered almost 130. Spotswood Baptist provided their transportation, a seafood buffet at a restaurant on the Potomac River, and reserved seats at the Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks in Washington.
Committee members joked that they had friends in high places. When asked who was in charge of the weather, member Jeff Donovan pointed toward heaven.
There seemed to be a divine connection.
As the last members of the group scurried away from the wall, the skies darkened. Raindrops as big as the polished buttons on Marine uniforms pelted the ground and continued through dinner.
Clouds parted as the group headed toward Southeast Washington and the Marine parade ground, and a slight breeze cooled the humid air.
When the group boarded the buses again at 10 p.m. for the ride home, the drizzle started once more.
It was but one aspect of an emotion-filled day for many.
Gustavus quickly found the name of a friend from high school among the 58,195 names listed on the memorial. He put a white carnation in front of the black panel, dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
The tears came quickly, along with the mixed emotions that seem to overtake many of the visitors.
He wondered why he had survived and his friend had died, and he remembered how things were when he came home from the war.
Gustavus served in the Navy. He'd been told not to wear his uniform off base, because people were so unpleasant toward servicemen returning from Vietnam.
He forgot the advice--once.
"You were looked down on like you were a communist or something," he said. "I thought I was serving my country, and you come back and people were burning our flags and cussing at you. It made you think, what did you do it for?"
Church member Christine Lindahl showed others her father's name. She was 15 months old when his plane crashed at sea. There's a diamond after "John C. Lindahl," which denotes that his body was never recovered.
She, too, felt mixed emotions. She grieved for the father she never knew, but she also has a happy memory of the wall.
It's where her husband, Dwayne Reynolds, proposed almost three years ago.
"He couldn't ask my father for my hand in marriage, so he brought me here to ask," she said.
Larry McClung, who served in the Air Force, found his name on the wall.
He was in Vietnam and his wife, Janey, was pregnant with their first child when the media reported that a "Larry E. McClung" was a casualty.
Janey McClung's father saw the report and told her to avoid the television and newspapers. Family members weren't able to communicate with loved ones as quickly as they can during this electronic age, and Janey McClung went through weeks of uncertainty.
When her husband's letters continued to arrive regularly, she and her family knew he wasn't the one who'd been killed.
Larry Earl McClung died in Vietnam.
Larry Edward McClung came home. Yesterday, Larry McClung made a pencil rubbing of his own name.
Bolick, the Marine who'd never heard "thank you," was encouraged by the things he saw in Washington. He'd seen the moving performances at the Marine Barracks several times, but he never saw a more appreciative audience.
Several times, as the band, color guard and drill team performed, those in attendance gave standing ovations.
The audience included veterans who had served in wars from Vietnam to Iraq. They and their family members appreciated the military service they saw before them, he said.
That gave Bolick a sense of peace, both for the past and for the future.
"There's hope for a nation that doesn't forget," he said.
To reach CATHY DYSON:
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
