Vietnam veteran visits friend at the wall for the first time
By Kara Rose Staff Writer
Gazette.net
May 3, 2013
Dan Gross/The Gazette
Jim Tyson (left) of Silver Spring and Doug Cadieux of Rocklin, Calif., at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
‘John’s gonna be 25 in my mind forever’
Friday was a “dream come true” for 65-year-old Doug Cadieux, who finally was finally able to honor the memory of his friend, John, after 44 years.
Cadieux, a Vietnam War veteran from Rocklin, Calif., ventured into Washington, D.C., with members of Silver Spring-based Vietnam Veterans of America to visit the Vietnam Memorial and see John’s name for the first time.
“I had a heck of a time last night getting to sleep in anticipation of coming,” said Cadieux, who served in the Air Force from 1969 to 1970.
He traveled to the area for the weekend with his wife, Joyce, after winning a radio contest. read more here
A compilation of stories and information about some of the 58,282 men and women whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. From the Wall
Written by
LARRY STIMELING
For all the names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall there are countless veterans taking care of their lives and making sure they are remembered. Larry is one of them and a tireless hero to families of the fallen and their brothers still living with memories of Vietnam. Buy the book and read some of the lives the names represent.
Vietnam Veteran Featured On News 9 Passes Away
Posted: Jan 14, 2013
By Steve Shaw, News 9
BRIDGEPORT, Oklahoma - A Vietnam Veteran from Bridgeport whose dying wish was to see the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington D.C. has passed away. But 64-year-old Dennis Hall's dream came true anyway.
Hall, who had been battling an aggressive brain tumor for several months, died peacefully in his sleep Sunday morning.
We first told you about Dennis Hall last August. Hall's granddaughter emailed News 9 about a bake sale the family was having. They were trying to scrape together money to get Dennis closer to his dream.
Not even five minutes after our story aired August 9, Oklahomans from all over the country stepped forward and offered money to help the Hall family. read more here
Iowa veteran attempting to put faces to the Vietnam Memorial Wall names
By Dean Reynolds
January 7, 2013
(CBS News)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Every year, more than 3 million people visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. Many others visit replicas that travel around the country.
All have the names of the more than 58,000 of Americans killed in the war -- but just the names.
That gave one Vietnam vet an idea.
Tom Brickman was an Army specialist in Vietnam who has spent most of the last 44 years trying to forget about it.
"I didn't want to talk about the war," he said. "I didn't want any memories of the war. I just wanted to put it deep in the past."
Last summer, Tom and his daughter Shari Kirkpatrick saw what's known "as the wall that heals" -- a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.
What he saw moved him, but he wanted to see more than names. He thought photographs would fill an emptiness he felt.
So now with Shari, Tom is on a mission to match a photograph to the 853 names on Iowans who fell in Vietnam.
"It's kind of a healing process... for myself, as well as the people, the families I have talked to. And I have talked to people who have told me about their experiences of what they went through with the death of their brother," he said.
read more here
There are plenty of stories published every year about how the Vietnam Memorial Wall heals but there are also stories no one wants to talk about. Suicides because of the Wall happen and too often some walk away more wounded than they were before they stood in front of it.
A 101st Vietnam vet's suicide haunts those left behind
Nov 9, 2012
Written by
Chuck Raasch
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Alice Franks is a long-distance runner.
On Veterans Day nine years ago, while walking to the starting line of a 10-mile race along the Potomac River, Franks suddenly discovered she was in a place she had tried so long to avoid. Before her was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Wall where the names of 58,282 Americans are carved into black granite.
Nineteen years before, Franks’ husband – a decorated Vietnam veteran – had sat down in front of an oak tree facing the Wall and killed himself. The place harbored too much pain, and now Alice was confronting it by accident for the first time.
On Sept. 15, 1984, Jeffery Davis left his shift as a Washington, D.C., plainclothes police officer and, as he often did, went drinking. After midnight he ended up at the Wall he had described as “foreboding.” Later, the Bronze Star winner walked away into the night and shot himself with his service revolver.
He was 36, and he left behind Alice and their two children, Kelly, 6, and Scott, 3.
Fellow Vietnam vets holding a vigil at the memorial, which had been dedicated two years earlier, found his body the next morning. read more here
Too many times a veteran walks away unprepared to face the emotions hidden deep inside of him or her. Yes, remember there are female Vietnam veterans just as wounded as males because of what they had to go through, but we don't like talking about them much either.
There have been many Vietnam veterans' stories you don't hear about and that is why I urge you to read the rest of the story from USA Today. When they see the Wall, they don't just see names. The see the buddies they lost and cannot forget.
Oklahoma Vietnam Veteran's Dying Wish Granted
Posted: Aug 27, 2012
By Steve Shaw
News 9
Hall received a special send-off from the Patriot Guard at Will Rogers World Airport.
BRIDGEPORT, Oklahoma - A Vietnam veteran's dying wish has been granted.
Sixty-three-year-old Dennis Hall has an inoperable brain tumor doctors say will kill him in less than a year. Three weeks ago, we told you Halls' final request was to visit the National Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington D.C.
Since our initial story aired, donations from all across the country have poured into the Hall's home in tiny Bridgeport, Oklahoma. read more here
A poignant Father's Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
By Natalie DiBlasio
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Every Father's Day, Mike Cruden comes to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to lay down a red rose in memory of his Marine father.
More than 100 people, including retired general George Casey, the 36th chief of staff of the Army, joined Cruden, 48, of Bayonne, N.J., on Sunday at an annual ceremony to recognize their fallen dads.
"I was 3 when my father died, and my sister was born while my father was in Vietnam, so she never even met him," Cruden said, holding back tears. "I always hated Father's Day. Everyone is buying their dads cards and ties. I never could."
Those at the ceremony quietly laid 2,000 roses along the base of the memorial wall — red roses for those killed in combat, yellow for those missing in action and white for those who have died recently.
"Everyone has a different story about their fathers," Cruden said. "This gives us, the kids, the chance to share stories and support each other. A lot of us are invisible." read more here
Honor Flight veterans get emotional at Vietnam memorial
By CINDY UKEN
Billings Gazette
Posted: Saturday, June 16, 2012
Walter P. Calahan
Vietnam Veteran Tom Dagroo getting help from Matthew McDonnell to find Dagroo's uncle's name placement on the Vietnam Memorial.
WASHINGTON — Tom Dagroo is dying.
The 66-year-old Vietnam veteran has COPD and is hanging on to life with the help of half a lung.
“I ain’t got long,” he said. “I was a little scared of coming because of it.”
How long? He has no idea.
“That answer belongs with the big guy upstairs,” Dagroo said.
Because of his terminal illness, Dagroo was given a seat among a group of World War II veterans making the inaugural journey with Big Sky Honor Flight. Though there was a waiting list to get aboard the flight, priority was given to terminally ill veterans from any war or conflict.
Dagroo was among the 96 World War II veterans who traveled from Billings to Washington, D.C., for a two-day tour of the National World War II Memorial and other Washington monuments, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Iwo Jima, the Lincoln Memorial and Korean Memorial.
“It’s a great honor they let me come,” he said fighting back tears. “It’s the biggest thrill.”
Before he dies Dagroo wanted to see — and experience — the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was one of the items on his bucket list. He wanted to see the names of his fallen comrades. read more here
Obama on Memorial Day Recalls the Fallen
Winding Down of Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Jon Garcia
May 28, 2012
"The White House announced last week that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the National Park Service and the Department of Defense had launched a 13-year program to “to honor and give thanks to a generation of proud Americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced.”
It was 50 years ago in January that the U.S. began to provide helicopter support to the South Vietnamese. That action grew into a 13-year conflict that took more than 58,000 American lives."
Under bright, hazy skies at Arlington National Cemetery, President Obama spent his fourth Memorial Day as commander in chief honoring the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died serving their country, particularly in the Vietnam War, which began more than 50 years ago.
“From the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan, they stepped forward and answered the call,” Obama told hundreds gathered in the humid, midday heat at the cemetery, which is across the Potomac River from the capital.
”They fought for a home they might never return to; they fought for buddies they’ll never forget. While their stories may be separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles, they rest here, together. Side by side, row by row. Because each of them loved this country and everything it stands for more than life itself.”
Heeding to custom, Obama also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, pausing to reflect and pray as a lone bugler played taps.
Obama took pains to point out that “for the first time in nine years Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq.”
That declaration drew applause, as did his pronouncement that “we are winding down the war in Afghanistan and our troops will continue to come home.
“After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” Obama said, pointing out that we need to remember not only the fallen but their families too.
“As a country, all of us can and should ask ourselves how we can help you shoulder a burden that nobody should have to bear alone,” he said. read more here
Parents of captured U.S. soldier lead Washington motorcycle rally
By Stacey Samuel
CNN
updated 6:14 PM EDT, Sun May 27, 2012
Rolling Thunder motorcyclists ride into Washington on Sunday, the day before Memorial Day
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Bowe Bergdahl disappeared in June 2009 in Afghanistan
His parents lead the Rolling Thunder ride
Robert Bergdahl's message to his son: "Stay strong, never give up"
Washington (CNN) -- The parents of missing U.S. serviceman Bowe Bergdahl led the Rolling Thunder ride in Washington on Sunday, trailed by the roar of what was estimated to be hundreds of thousands of motorcycles.
The annual Memorial Day weekend ride, now in its 25th year, is held in remembrance of prisoners of war and those missing in action.
Bergdahl, a 26-year-old army sergeant, was captured in Afghanistan in 2009 after he finished his guard shift at a combat outpost in southeastern Paktika province. read more here
Ten Names Added To Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
by Michael Patrick Brewer
May. 19, 2012
Ten new names, ten brothers in arms, ten legacies of courage.
On Sunday, ten new names were added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, including CPL Frank A. Neary of the United States Marine Corps.
With these additions, 58,282 names are now etched in granite on The Wall.
During an emotional ceremony on a perfect day in Washington, DC, CPL Neary’s daughter, Jessica DiNapoli, shared her memories of a man who came home from Vietnam, raised a family, and never forgot the sacrifices of his fellow service men and women.
P.S. Today we also honor and remember the nine names added to The Wall in addition to CPL Neary.
They are:
PFC Johnny Owen Brooks, U.S. Army, Stockton, CA
PFC Larry Morgan Kelly, U.S. Army, Akron, OH
SP4 David Lawrence Deckard, U.S. Army, Louisville, KY
ATC Joseph William Aubin, U.S. Navy, Bridgeport, CT
ATR3 Richard Carl Hunt, U.S. Navy, Guys Mills, PA
LT Walter Allan Linzy, U.S. Navy, Nashville, AR
ATR3 Richard Dwaine Stocker, U.S. Navy, Jacksonville, AR
LTJG David McLean Desilets, U.S. Navy, Palm Desert, CA
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A western New York family's 30-year effort to have a loved-one's misspelled first name corrected on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is nearly over.
Sen. Charles Schumer says the National Park Service has told him Roland Settimi's first name will be corrected on the memorial wall in Washington, D.C., by Memorial Day. When the memorial was completed in 1982, Settimi's first name was engraved as Ronald.
Surviving family members have been trying to have the mistake corrected. They recently sought help from Schumer, who asked the parks service to make the correction.
Settimi was a 20-year-old Army medic from Niagara Falls when he was killed in action in 1969.
Schumer is joining members of Settimi's family Wednesday at the Vietnam Memorial in Buffalo to announce the impending correction.
Angelo Papale didn't have a way to get to the Vietnam Memorial Wall until a flight to take him to the WWII Memorial brought him to Washington. The other WWII veterans wanted to go to the Vietnam Memorial Wall where Angelo was able to see the name of his son. Arthur was shot down after the third trip to save the lives of Rangers.
A veteran's emotional goodbye to son at Vietnam Memorial
Oct 06, 2011
By Jeff Lawson
WASHINGTON D.C., (WLOX)
Angelo Papale was one of nearly 90 World War II veterans who traveled to see their memorial in the nation's capital in late September. During the war, Angelo flew 30 bombing missions as a gunner on board a B24. Somehow, he made it back alive and unscathed.
At 88, this was the first time he has ever gone to the WWII Memorial. Like the rest of the veteran's on the trip, he called it a great honor.
For Angelo and the other vets, the day also included a stop at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall, where they saw all those names of soldiers gone too soon. For Angelo, the stop was personal, because one of those 58,195 names, is that of Arthur L. Papale, Angelo's son.
It was 1969, when Arthur Papale was shot down while piloting a helicopter.
"He had gone in and picked up two rangers," Angelo said. "He went back to pick up more, and there was too much firepower. So he went back a third time and that is when they shot him down."
Angelo and his wife did not learn of their son's fate until several days later, while at their Biloxi home. read more here
If you want to see a powerful video report on two heroes watch this video.
Police mum about cause of Wheeler’s death
By Cris Barrish - The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
Posted : Monday Jan 17, 2011 8:15:20 EST
WILMINGTON, Del. — How was former Pentagon official John P. Wheeler III killed?
If police know, they aren't saying.
Two full weeks after Wheeler's body was spotted tumbling out of a trash hauler into a landfill here on New Year's Eve, police and the state Medical Examiner's Office remain uncharacteristically silent.
Though officials immediately labeled his death a "homicide," they have refused to provide the cause, nor will they say whether they're sure how Wheeler died.
Law enforcement's posture runs contrary to normal Delaware police procedure in homicide cases. Police agencies routinely say how a homicide victim died, even in cases where the crime occurred in a private home rather than a public place like a street shooting, and where no suspect has been arrested or identified.
read more here Police mum about cause of Wheeler’s death
Dumped body was Vietnam War vet
Slay victim a defense consultant for US
BY CHAD LIVENGOOD • THE NEWS JOURNAL • JANUARY 3, 2011
Newark police have identified the body discovered on New Year's Eve at the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington as 66-year-old John P. Wheeler III of New Castle.
Wheeler, a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War who lived part time in Old New Castle, was a defense consultant in Washington, D.C., and had a long career in public service, working in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Wheeler was past chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the memorial on the National Mall in Washington.
His death has been ruled a homicide.
Newark police had a crime-scene van at Wheeler's home at 108 W. Third St. in New Castle on Sunday, with crime-scene tape roping off the prominent three-story brick home with black shutters.
Their booth is in ruins, but vets' mission intact
Friday, November 26, 2010
BY BRETT ZONGKER
THE RECORD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Rolling Thunder won't let a fire stop its longtime mission of educating visitors to the nation's capital about soldiers still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
An accidental blaze this week, likely caused by a leak in a propane heater, destroyed a kiosk that has sold mementos for nearly 20 years, but that, more important, gave Vietnam veterans who manned the booth around the clock a chance to talk to people about their brothers still considered missing.
"You wouldn't believe the people that come up to you and ask, 'What does POW-MIA mean?' " said Walt Sides, a founder of Rolling Thunder and a Marine Corps veteran from Leesburg, Va. "That's why we're there — to get the word out."
He said the group plans to rebuild with an identical booth that also used to stand at the site near the Vietnam Memorial.
All that was left after the fire was the shell of the kiosk and charred debris, including POW bracelets and a flagpole with the tattered remains of an American flag.
read more here Their booth is in ruins, but vets mission intact
Fire starts near Vietnam memorial
By Martin Weil
A fire broke out late Monday at a small structure near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Initial accounts indicated that the structure was a booth used by Vietnam veterans and supporters concerned about those believed missing in action or prisoners of war.
The fire apparently destroyed the small booth, according to preliminary reports. The booth is at the west end of the Mall area, within sight of the Lincoln Memorial. Fire starts near Vietnam memorial
Geophysicists Dorothy Richter and Gene Simmons will be at the site today to continue their evaluation and hope to release a report in a few weeks.
It's possible heat is to blame for the cracks, but Richter told The Washington Post the experts "do not know with certainty" what caused them. Most are small, and the Memorial Fund says they're not an immediate threat to the memorial.
In fact, as the Post points out, the wall has a history of cracks that dates back to 1984, just two years after it was opened to the public. Those cracks were horizontal, and in 1986, two of the wall's 144 slabs were taken out and studied.
read more here
I can't remember how many times I've traveled to see the Traveling Walls around the country. (Yes, there are more than one.) Each time there are tributes and memories left along with flowers and lot of tears. Yet none of these compare to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington.
This was the second time my husband and I went to the Wall for Memorial Day. We went with the Nam Knights out of Orlando FL. This year I flew up there while my husband rode the Harley with the Knights. When I arrived, I took a cab to Walter Reed. Being a Chaplain with the IFOC and the DAV Auxiliary has some perks and I was given a VIP tour.
I met many of the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan and thought back to what it must have been like for Vietnam veterans coming home, most about the same age as these new veterans.
The voices and smiles of the men and a young female MP I met stayed with me during the ride to the Wall the next day. We had a ceremony on the grass near the wall and a Park Ranger raised his bugle to play TAPS. As people stopped in their steps to stand in silence, it was almost as if all of the fallen had angels brining their lives into our hearts.
Today's veterans are not forgotten or shoved aside because of the legacy of the Vietnam veterans. Even now with many of these veterans taking leadership roles in service organizations, they build on their memories. What they lacked, they try to fill for others. What they were denied, they try to provide to others. What support they were hungry for, they deliver.
The Vietnam Memorial Wall is a giant "I'm sorry" from the nation to these men and women and an acknowledgement of their sacrifices. It is not about the war itself but about the men and women who gave all they had. It is not political but is personal and the tributes left there are from the hearts of those who carried them there from across the country. If you honor the troops serving today, then honor the men and women who taught this nation a lesson in honoring those who serve the nation no matter if you support the war itself or not.
Watching this video, I cried because it is a beautiful tribute to the Vietnam veterans and how they have captured our hearts.
Sent by email
Below is a wonderful video by the Pentagon Channel and it provides you with a behind-the-scenes look at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection. I invite you to take a look when you have the time. I am sure you will be as touched by it as I was.
The phenomenon of leaving items at The Wall is believed to have begun in 1982 when someone placed a Purple Heart in the concrete being poured during the Memorial's initial construction. Since that time, the public has continued to leave objects at The Wall and not just the traditional items left at other war memorials such as flowers and flags. Military objects that are customarily handed down from generation to generation such as medals, uniforms and dog tags have been placed at the Memorial, as well as teddy bears, poems, pictures, birthday cards, cigarettes and even a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
The National Park Service collects these items every night. The objects, which now number more than 120,000, are stored at the Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. These objects will be on display in a new facility being built by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. To learn more about the center, please visit: buildthecenter.org.
Jan C. Scruggs Founder and President Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Jan C. Scruggs is the founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He conceived the idea of building a memorial dedicated to all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam.
Scruggs was a wounded and decorated Vietnam War veteran, having served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade of the U.S. Army. He felt a memorial would serve as a healing device for a different kind of wound – that inflicted on our national psyche by the long and controversial war.
In May 1979, Scruggs took $2,800 of his own money and launched the effort. Gradually, he gained the support of other Vietnam veterans in persuading Congress to provide a prominent location on federal property somewhere in Washington, D.C.. After a difficult struggle, Congress responded and the site chosen was on the Mall near the Lincoln Memorial.
Serving as president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., the non-profit organization set up to build the Memorial, Scruggs headed up the effort that raised $8.4 million and saw the Memorial completed in two years. It was dedicated on November 13, 1982, during a week-long national "salute" to Vietnam veterans in the nation's capital.
His story of building the Memorial, To Heal A Nation, co-written with Joel L. Swerdlow, was made into an NBC-TV Movie of the Week in 1988. Actor Eric Roberts played the role of Scruggs.
Scruggs is a member of the Selective Service Appeals Board, a board member of the National Veterans Legal Services Project, and special assistant to the Chairman of the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 1993 he was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the U.S. Jaycees.
Scruggs is a native of Washington, D.C., and grew up in Bowie, Maryland. He received his BS and MEd degrees from The American University, Washington, D.C., and his law degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
