By MIKE FLYNN
Contributor
Programs of support for veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq are conscience-manifestations of thanks from a nation. Now there’s a growing movement to touch that same national conscience 50 years late, to extend a thank you to veterans of the Vietnam War who received a markedly different reception when they returned home.
The Vietnam War Commemoration, aimed at spurring events and activities in states, cities and towns around the country to recognize Vietnam veterans and their families for service and sacrifice, has already had one high-visibility event in this state.
But additional local visibility will likely lie ahead as a week-long series of interviews with veterans of the Vietnam War, conducted by Joe Galloway, the Vietnam correspondent whose book and the movie it spawned made him likely the best-known war correspondent of recent times, will take place in April in Seattle.
Ideally, other Vietnam veterans events will emerge to attract additional focus to Galloway’s visit and the 50th commemoration.
The high-visibility event already held was a commemoration tribute on Oct. 9 that attracted more than 2,500 Vietnam veterans from around the Northwest onto the parade field at JBLM for a salute ceremony, massing of the colors and keynote speech by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey. The event, conceived by Lt. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, I-Corps commanding general, was only the second Vietnam War Commemoration event at one of the nation’s military bases.
Lanza, saying that as he noticed that Vietnam-era veterans were among those enthusiastically welcoming soldiers home from deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, said he realized Vietnam veterans “had never had that” welcome-home reception, so he helped create a thank you opportunity.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in having no knowledge of this Vietnam War Commemoration, mandated by Congress in 2008 and launched by presidential order in 2012, until the JBLM event, and even then only as curiosity as I went to the Internet to try to find when the 50th anniversary of Vietnam would be.
Then came an email exchange in November with Galloway, a one-time colleague at United Press International, the wire service for which he covered the Vietnam War. I’ve written a couple of Flynn’s Harp columns on him and we now exchange emails occasionally.
Galloway advised me that he has a role in the Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemorative Project, serving as a special consultant to the project run out of the office of the Secretary of Defense, doing oral-history interviews with Vietnam veterans.
In connection with the 50th Anniversary Commemorative, Galloway has been doing three-a-day, two-hour interviews with Vietnam veterans from across the services spectrum, noting he has “65 two-hour interviews in the can now, beginning with Colin Powell and working outward.”
“So you should come to Seattle and do interviews,” I told Galloway, a Texas boy who as a correspondent was decorated for heroism on the battlefield and praised by the late Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf as “the soldiers’ reporter” because of his caring and regard for those whose battles he covered.
So I wrote two columns in November, the first related to the interviews he’s doing around the country and the second about the Battle of Ia Drang, made famous by his book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” and the movie produced from it, “We Were Soldiers.”
I got the word a week or so ago that Galloway will be here for a week of interviews April 12-18 and he may have with him retired Army Lt. Gen. Claude M. “Mick” Kicklighter, who is charged with overseeing all aspects of the Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration, and sometimes travels to a location with Galloway.
While Galloway covered Iraq and Afghanistan, it was his coverage of Vietnam which weighs most heavily on his shoulders and in his thoughts.
Galloway’s interviews in Seattle may include Bruce Crandall, the helicopter pilot whose heroism in repeated flights into the death zone of the Ia Drang battlefield to bring supplies and evacuate the wounded brought him the Medal of Honor, as well as prominent visibility in the movie made from Galloway’s book. Crandall has retired to Kitsap County.
“We don’t have a big budget and so we’d need a university or something like that to provide space and assistance to do the interviews,” Galloway told me.
I quickly touched base with Pam Pearson, the vice president and general manager of KCPQ-13 for help and she readily agreed to provide whatever studio space and technical assistance he needed through the week.
“First time we’ve ever had a television station as our facility,” Galloway enthused.
In addition, Gloria Fletcher, president of Sound Publishing, which owns and publishes daily and weekly newspapers across the state — many in areas of heavy military concentration — has agreed to help promote Galloway’s visit as well as events that may be related to it, and thus provide visibility for companies that may wish to participate in some manner.
This coming Memorial Day is the opener of what Kicklighter has described as the “most active phase” of the 50th Commemoration, which will run to Veterans Day 2017 and finally conclude on Veterans Day 2025.
The goal now, and one that may be contributed to with the Seattle visit, is development of Commemorative Partners, a program designed for federal, state and local communities, veterans’ organizations and other nongovernmental organizations to assist in thanking and honoring Vietnam veterans and their families.
Commemorative Partners are encouraged to participate in the Commemoration of the Vietnam War by planning and conducting at least two events or activities during that will recognize the Vietnam veterans and their families’ service, valor, and sacrifice.
Commemorative Partners must commit to conduct at least two events each year during the commemorative period of 2015-17 that will recognize, thank and honor our Vietnam veterans and their families.
— Mike Flynn is a business consultant and former longtime editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal. His blog, Flynn’s Harp, can be read at www.emikeflynn.com/blog.
