Lambeau Field event honors Vietnam vets
http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_2bb28076-100f-5f98-8354-6f5841017843.html
LZ Lambeau marks overdue recognition
May 16, 2010
By Steven Verburg
MADISON - When Jim Kurtz returned to Madison in 1967, he saw how
strong the anti-war feelings were and decided not to talk about his
years as an Army officer in Vietnam.
He went to work for state government not knowing that many of his
co-workers were keeping the same secret. Kurtz discovered how much
they had in common when he read their obituaries.
"You go to war and it's the single dominant experience you've had,
but you don't talk about it," Kurtz said. "People I worked with
closely for 20 years, and we never talked about it because in
Madison, being a veteran was just not the thing to be."
After serving in Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s, Kurtz and
other veterans returned home to a country torn apart by mounting
death tolls, reports of atrocities and revelations of government
lies. In Madison, the anti-war movement was among the biggest and
loudest in the country, and many veterans who re-entered civilian
life here kept their heads down.
So it's a measure of how attitudes have changed that thousands of
Vietnam veterans are expected to attend LZ Lambeau in Green Bay next
weekend, an event designed to publicly express overdue thanks for
their service, said lead organizer Don Jones of Madison.
"I can't count the number of veterans who've said this is the first
time that anybody had ever mentioned the word 'thank you' to them," Jones said.
The weekend at Lambeau Field is sponsored by the Wisconsin Department
of Veterans Affairs, the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin
Public Television, which is airing a related documentary.
State veterans groups say it may be the largest event in the nation
to honor Vietnam veterans. Between 50,000 and 70,000 people are
expected to attend, Jones said.
Kurtz has interviewed 125 Vietnam veterans for a Wisconsin Veterans
Museum oral history collection. A common thread is a feeling of isolation.
"Nobody was interested or nobody cared and they thought you were a
fool for doing it, or worse yet, a criminal," he said.
Said Jones: "A lot of the soldiers felt that the anger was being
directed against them when it could have been more positively
directed against the political folks who were driving the war forward."
Jones, an Army officer who landed in Madison after a tour in Vietnam,
said he was offended by those who blamed low-ranking soldiers for
reporting for duty instead of resisting or fleeing to Canada, and for
obeying unlawful orders that led to civilian deaths.
"There's no place for a private to stand against an officer," he
said, "and the draft was a very coercive law."
David Shaw said he plans to take part in LZ Lambeau, but only because
missing it would be rude now that organizers are trying to do the
right thing. The ex-Marine never expected a welcome home parade,
especially since military men and women came home in ones and twos,
not in large groups like the National Guard units fighting today in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said he still feels anger and bitterness about what he came to see
as the pointlessness of the war effort, and how nobody at home wanted
to hear about what he experienced.
At parties in Madison in the 1970s, Shaw liked to tell a story he
found humorous about a fellow Marine in Vietnam who was left
wide-eyed, black-faced and with a broken cigarette dangling from his
lips after someone in his land mine repair unit accidently detonated
a charge in his face.
"I tried to tell it at parties, and I lost my audience," said Shaw,
today a retired lawyer living near Madison. "The fact that I was
laughing caused them to look askance at me. For the people at home,
there just wasn't anything funny about the war."
Kurtz, the Army officer who returned to Madison to work for state
government, said that near the end of his service in Vietnam he
disobeyed orders to inflate enemy body counts for commanders. They
wanted to give Washington news that might calm opposition at home by
indicating the U.S. was winning.
But Kurtz didn't talk about that when he got home. He kept quiet,
figuring there was nothing he could say that would make the people
around him accept a Vietnam veteran.
He made up his mind one day near campus as he stood behind police who
were lined up against an anti-war rally.
"They started vilifying the police for being on the side of the
baby-killers, and that just put me off into a shell," Kurtz said. "In
the Madison community, at least with some people, there was a higher
value put on being a protester."
Over the years, as attitudes softened, Kurtz and others revealed
themselves. They began to join veterans groups or find former war
buddies through the Internet.
Now, more of the public has come to support troops, even if they
disagree with government military actions, said Mike Demske,
president of the Wisconsin Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America.
In the 1960s and 1970s, if you put Vietnam veterans and war opponents
in the same room, the veterans might have faced a few - probably very
few - questions about why they hadn't tried to undermine the war by
resisting the draft, said Paul Soglin, a student leader on Madison's
anti-war front before he became mayor for 14 years in two terms
spread over three decades.
But most people knew there was much disillusionment in the military,
he said, and anti-war activists simply would have felt uncomfortable
if they didn't know whether a veteran was for or against the war.
"I think it's a tension that everybody felt," Soglin said. "Here we
are 40 years later, and we still don't know what one another thinks
of each other."
--
If You Go
What: LZ Lambeau, a thank you to Vietnam War and Vietnam-era
veterans. Among events and activities are concerts, reunions, vehicle
displays and exhibits, including The Moving Wall.
When: Thursday through Sunday, May 23. Featured event is a tribute
ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Lambeau Field, Lombardi Avenue at South Oneida Street, Green Bay.
Cost: Free for all events, except for Saturday tribute, which is free
to all Vietnam veterans but $10 for all others.
Tickets: They are required only for the Saturday tribute, even for
Vietnam veterans who are admitted free. Order at www.lzlambeau.org or
800-895-0071.
Schedule of events: www.lzlambeau.org.
--
Madison and Vietnam
Madison was one of the key hot spots in the nation for anti-Vietnam
War protests. Some significant dates and events:
Oct. 16, 1965: Eleven Vietnam War protesters are arrested at Truax
Field, then an Army air base, after sitting in the road and refusing to leave.
Feb. 22, 1967: Seventeen demonstrators are arrested as hundreds
protest UW-Madison campus recruiting by Dow Chemical Co., which
supplied the military with napalm. Police forcibly remove
demonstrators from a university building as a crowd of 2,000 to 3,000
outside becomes involved. Violence erupts between the crowd and police.
October 1967: Violence marks several demonstrations on the campus.
Oct. 1, 1968: Some draft records are destroyed when a small fire is
set in the state Selective Service headquarters.
Aug. 24, 1970: The Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall on
campus is bombed, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht.
April 6, 1971: By a ratio of more than 2-to-1, city voters call for
an immediate cease-fire in Vietnam and withdrawal of troops.
April-May, 1972: Protests occur on campus in response to the renewed
bombing of North Vietnam and the mining and blockading of North
Vietnamese harbors.
Jan. 18, 1973: The Dane County Board votes 22-17 on a war resolution
calling for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. personnel and
military material from Indochina.
Jan. 27, 1973: Church bells ring signaling the cease-fire in Vietnam.
Source: Wisconsin State Journal archives
--
War Facts
- Out of 2.59 million Americans who served in Vietnam, 58,148 were
killed and 304,000 wounded.
- The average age of those killed was 23.
- One out of every 10 Americans who served was a casualty. Although
the percentage who died is similar to other wars, amputations or
crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II. Today,
75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled.
- The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II
saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in
Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year, thanks to the
mobility of the helicopter.
- Of Vietnam veterans, 91 percent say they are glad they served; 74
percent say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome.
- Two-thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers;
two-thirds who served in World War II were draftees.
Source: www.vietnam-war.info
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Wisconsin veterans are finally telling their Vietnam War stories
May 15, 2010
BY JILL TATGE-ROZELL
jrozell@kenoshanews.com
Michael Falbo sits exhausted, back against a tree in the heavy
Vietnam bush, head turned toward the camera with a "put that thing
away look" on his face.
"That day still stays with me," said Falbo, a member of the
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and a former Kenosha
resident, as he looked at the photograph.
Falbo, a medic, had just put four wounded comrades on a helicopter
and couldn't figure out why someone would be taking pictures at a
time like that. When he learned the camera belonged to one of the
wounded he quickly understood the importance of those photos.
He recalls the moments before the snapshot was taken in an interview
as part of the Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories project. The documentary
airs May 24-26. While not all the interviews conducted are part of
the documentary, each of the 100 stories will be archived for
posterity in the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
"Anyone who was there was permanently changed," Falbo said. "I went
to Vietnam and I came back not quite the same person. In fact,
nowhere near the same person."
Telling emotional stories that haven't been heard before, Wisconsin
Vietnam War veterans recount their experiences in the three-hour
television documentary. Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories features dozens
of veterans from all regions of Wisconsin who reflect on their
memories of the Vietnam War and their experiences during and after
the conflict.
Telling their stories
Falbo said as he gets older he sees the importance of sharing war
stories with family and believes all veterans, "in their own way and
own time," need to tell their stories. It is important, at the very
least, to family members, he said.
"It may explain to them, in some cases, why you are the way you are
your actions and values," he said.
Falbo admits he and his brother, also a Vietnam War veteran, never
really talked to one another about their experiences. Being involved
in this project has given them the opportunity to start that dialogue.
If it wasn't for the Vietnam War Stories project, Kenosha resident
Dennis Aldrich may never have opened up to his wife, Bonnie, and his
children about his experiences there.
"He and I never talked about it not until he did the interview,"
Bonnie said. "I remember his mother telling me when we got married I
should never wake him up when he's sleeping."
Bonnie has shared a copy of the interview with their children, though
Dennis has yet to watch it.
"I'm content with where I'm at with Vietnam," he said.
Veterans from all branches of service were interviewed by producer
Mik Derks as part of the effort that went into the documentary,
developed in partnership with Wisconsin Public Television, the
Wisconsin Historical Society and the state Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Each veteran shared moving stories of triumph and loss in the field
of duty, brotherhood and companionship in the ranks, and of the
welcome home they never received after sacrificing nearly everything
on the battlefield," Derks said.
The archival video, historical photographs and maps included in the
documentary present stark imagery of the war and help bring the
viewer into the veterans' stories.
Traveling exhibit
The project also includes: upcoming screenings and discussions at
local libraries; a traveling portrait exhibit; an extensive
curriculum to aid teachers in presenting the state's connection to
the war to middle and high school students; and a companion book to
the documentary authored by Sarah A. Larsen and Jennifer M. Miller,
published by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The book shares 40 firsthand accounts of Wisconsin veterans'
experiences in the Vietnam War. The interviews expand on stories told
in the film. Told in chronological order, chapters focus on
involvement prior to the war, Army and Marine ground combat with the
Vietcong, the Tet Offensive, key battles, medical units, firefights,
the prisoner of war experience and life after Vietnam.
"Chronicling their physical and spiritual endurance through the
horrors of war and its aftermath, it gives the veterans the voice
they did not have when they returned home during antiwar protests,"
said Melanie Roth, of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
It also explores the bonds created there, said Falbo.
"There was no racism at all," he said. "When you stood shoulder to
shoulder and your life depended on each other, there was no color."
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