Back to News

Vietnam veteran's salute at Lewis-McChord

The 593rd ESC recognizes 50th anniversary of Vietnam War

The 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command honors Vietnam veterans at JBLM Oct. 14. Photo credit: DoD

Recommend Article
Total Recommendations (0)
Clip Article Email Article Print Article Share Article

The old films are fading; the battle footage turning yellow; the color growing fainter with each year; the airplanes are stuttering in the air; the trucks and tanks growing dim. The photographs are starting to disappear; the images receding into the past. These are not the films of Word War II but the images of Vietnam, the images once so vibrant, so immediate, so much in the present as gunfire flashed on the televisions in the background while families sat for dinner, already growing indifferent to the nightly violence.

The official beginning of America's most controversial war is reaching its 50th anniversary.  According to several sources, including the VFW Magazine and the Public Information Office, of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in the war, less than 850,000 are believed to be alive today. Vietnam veterans are dying at the rate of 390 each day, about the same for World War II vets 50 years after their war. The 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command at Joint Base Lewis-McChord thinks it is time to recognize them.

The fading images of war known to the public have not diminished in the minds of many veterans. They still see and feel the jungles, the rain dripping from the banana leaves, the deep cavernous trails though the bamboo forests, the ubiquitous red mud clinging to jungle boots, skin, and fatigues. At every pause along a trial the mud was pried from between the cleats of boots with a bayonet, only to reaccumulate with the first step. Those steps were often deadly: punji stick traps waiting to impale and poison, trip wires indistinguishable from bent grass or small vines and ready to be pulled to blow off feet and legs or launch a carnivorous Bouncing Betty waist high to chew through a soldier's manhood taking with it all the joys of future children and hopes of carrying on the family heritage.

The wounds of these jungle traps were horrendous and, combined with other explosives, left 75,000 soldiers disabled. Almost 6,000 lost limbs and more than 1,000 suffered multiple amputations.

Soldiers still see the many deuce-and-a-half trucks loaded with supplies, reinforcements, and wounded, the metal hot to the touch, even the wooden slats scorching under the peeling paint. And again, the red mud clinging to the tires to be flung off to thud and splatter against the wheel wells and fenders on the few hard-packed roads between coastal towns on Highway 19 from Qui Nhon to Pleiku. Tanks, limited to roads and often ineffectual for this reason, clatter through the mud during monsoon season or kick out voluminous clouds of dust during the dry season.

Fading in the pictures, but not in the minds are the young soldiers, innocent, grinning or terrified, America's most educated Military with 79 percent of soldiers holding high school diplomas and above compared to 45 percent for World War II and 63 percent for Korea. They look young, almost too young to go to war, with the average age between 19 and 23 years old. An exact age has never been officially determined Five 16-year-olds died in the war. The men are getting ready for patrol: backpacks loaded with dry socks, a poncho (it always seems to rain on patrol), C-rations - not the full box, just the essentials like canned peaches, spaghetti, pound cake, dry and chewy, and maybe a can of beef stew. With any luck, someone has found some LRRP rations - specialty food for specialty soldiers, light and easy to carry, not the led-heavy regular fair for regular soldiers.

Those soldiers stuck with M-14s get short-changed on ammo, not because they cannot get enough but because they cannot carry enough. The rounds are heavy and bulky and 80 rounds make a full load while 200 or more rounds of M-16 is possible. And they see the canteens, at least two. No one goes into the bush with one. The boonie hats and helmets hold mosquito repellent and cigarettes and peace signs and obscenities and political statements - free speech at its best - and no two soldiers seem to be wearing the same uniform; some in older fatigues, some in new jungle fatigues, others in flack jackets, some in T-shirts that will be eventually removed. Newer soldiers (cherries) carry several bottles of mosquito repellant. Older soldiers sometimes carry none, their blood having gone sour with time spent in country and eventually repugnant to mosquitoes. Slings and dog tags are taped to reduce noise.

The 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command will conduct a first-class vent for Pacific Northwest Vietnam veterans and their families in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the official start of the Vietnam War. Soldiers at JBLM realized the veterans did not receive a proper homecoming and they intend to appropriately honor their sacrifice to their country.

The veteran's salute will begin at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9 on Watkins Field and will include the I Corps band, a joint-service color guard, an artillery salute battery and Territorial colors marching unit. A massing of the colors in honor of the veterans in attendance will kick off the ceremony. Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, I Corps commanding general, will offer brief comments concerning the dedication of the veterans followed by a special guest speaker.

Busses will be provided to shuttle veterans to Cowan Stadium to view past and present displays of military equipment. Units from the 7th Infantry Division and 1st Special Forces Group will also enact various demonstrations.

To remember the anniversary, the 593rd ESC has designed and commissioned a special pin to be awarded to all Vietnam veterans present. Four different designs have been approved; with the final one to be selected next week. The pinning ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. 

Read next close

Arts

Olympia Arts Walk XLIX

comments powered by Disqus

Site Search