An overdue homecoming for Vietnam vets

Vietnam veteran Wilson Gutherie receives a commemorative lapel pin Saturday, April 22, 2017 during the Vietnam Era Veterans Commemoration ceremony at the American Legion Post 5. Guthrie served as a Senior Master Sergeant for 28 years and later retired.
Vietnam veteran Wilson Gutherie receives a commemorative lapel pin Saturday, April 22, 2017 during the Vietnam Era Veterans Commemoration ceremony at the American Legion Post 5. Guthrie served as a Senior Master Sergeant for 28 years and later retired.

Places of historical note change from war to war, era to era - Fallujah, Kabul and Baghdad for younger generations or Khe Sanh, Dak To, Hue and Saigon for members of the Vietnam War-era generation and their kin.

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United Features Syndicate

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The more than 58,000 names of fallen servicemen and women etched into the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., or simply "The Wall," do not change, however.

They are eternal.

Between Nov. 1, 1955, and May 15, 1975, 2.7 million U.S. troops were sent to Vietnam, and along with the more than 58,000 who were killed, about 304,000 were wounded and 75,000 permanently disabled, Jim Rosenberg said Saturday evening at a ceremony at the Roscoe Enloe Post 5 of the American Legion in Jefferson City.

Rosenberg is the first vice commander of the post.

"Right now, we're just scratching the service of the effects of Agent Orange and PTSD, because of which countless were killed in-country, but didn't die until they got home," he said. "If you're a veteran, you know what I mean by that statement."

Agent Orange was a highly toxic, defoliant herbicide sprayed over the jungles of Vietnam in an effort to strip enemy forces of their natural cover. The residual poisonous legacy of its use as a chemical warfare agent is presumed to have killed and maimed U.S. veterans and Vietnamese people alike for decades.

PTSD stands for post-traumatic stress disorder. The mental illness has likely manifested itself among soldiers for as long as warfare has existed, but the Vietnam era's diagnosis and treatment of the disease was not what it is today.

Rosenberg didn't serve in Vietnam, but his dad in the Army did - four times - and he said the effects of Agent Orange claimed his life years later.

Although the names of the fallen are never out of focus for the people who mourn them, the ceremony Saturday evening at the post was more about those who came home from Vietnam but didn't get the welcome they deserved.

Rosenberg explained people today may not know how different things were for veterans returning from tours of duty in Vietnam compared to soldiers' homecomings today.

He said most veterans from Vietnam didn't get a homecoming celebration at all or got a nasty one instead, with the vitriol many members of that generation held for the war itself often turned directly against those in uniform, rather than to the often faceless military-industrial machine.

Saturday's ceremony, the second in as many months, was about getting Vietnam-era veterans to "finally feel welcome and appreciated for what they've done," he said.

Forty Vietnam veterans were recognized Saturday, including members of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

Those who served in-country in Vietnam as part of "boots on the ground" forces received special, hand-crafted pins from Marvin "Bud" Ulstad. Ulstad died of cancer recently, but before he did, he contacted the post.

He received his own pin in a private ceremony at his nursing home and gave the post commanders 150 pins with Vietnam colors for fellow boots on the ground veterans like him.

"That doesn't minimize what everybody (else) has done, and I want you to understand that," Rosenberg said.

Elizabeth Siebeneck was the first person to receive a pin Saturday, post-humously for her husband.

One husband and wife couple, Steven and Nancy Maxwell, were also among those recognized Saturday. The Maxwells served at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital.

Everyone recognized Saturday also received a copy of a proclamation issued by then-President Barack Obama. The proclamation declares May 28, 2012, through Nov. 11, 2025, as the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.

The proclamation reads in part, "In the reflection of The Wall, we see the military family members and veterans who carry a pain that may never fade. May they find peace in knowing their loved ones endure, not only in medals and memories, but in the hearts of all Americans, who are forever grateful for their service, valor and sacrifice."

"I know it's late, but it's still good to hear it," Charlie Goodin said of the "welcome home." Goodin is a Jefferson City native, Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, veterans' advocate and 43-year member of the Roscoe Enloe post.