Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne

This podcast features stories about individual members of the Vietnam Veteran Generation, a generation as great as any that ever heeded the call of duty from its country. In this episode we will tell you about Doug Chamberlain who served with the US Marines in Vietnam and today lives in his native La Grange, Wyoming. His story was told in an article in The Casper Star Tribune titled: 1st Lt. Doug Chamberlain, LaGrange that was submitted by Douglas R. Cubbison.

Chamberlain is a lifelong resident of Goshen County, Wyoming except for a three hitch in the US Marines. He went to college on a basketball scholarship and graduated with a teaching degree. He was immediately drafted in the spring of 1965. He chose to go into the Marines officer candidate program which landed him in Vietnam in 1967 as a newly promoted first lieutenant. Soon after his arrival in country his company commander was killed and due to shortage of officers he was assigned as the company commander of Echo Company of 2nd Battalion/7th Marines.

He served and survived ten months as the company commander and finished his time in country as the battalion S-4 (logistics officer). Most of his time as the company commander was spent guarding Highway 1 from Da Nang heading to Hue. That meant securing 33 bridges over 16 miles of highway which was a challenging task with the amount of men available.

His company was challenged by the Tet Offensive of 1968, so much that at one time his company received a grim order: “Every man for himself, head for the ocean for evacuation.” Luckily the order was cancelled and they were ordered to march by foot back to their starting point. Chamberlain and his company also took part in Operation Allen Brook where in the first week of the operation, the Marines sustained 138 killed and 686 wounded in the face of determined VC resistance.

Chamberlain was honorably discharged from the Marines as a Captain in June 1969. He came home and continued to serve his country by running the family farm, teach school, serve in the Wyoming Legislature,  and as a member of the Wyoming Parole Board. He is a founding board member of EduLink, an educational leadership organization; and serves as a manager with KGOS/KERM radio in Torrington.

Doug Chamberlain is an outstanding representative of the Vietnam Veteran Generation.

Back in episode 677 of this podcast we took a look at, Tim Page, a notable photographer who worked in the Vietnam War. Back in 1965 while working for an aid agency in Laos he just happened to take pictures of an attempted coup. The pictures were picked up by UPI and as a result Page was offered a position as a photographer in the Saigon Bureau which he accepted.

After years of work as a globetrotting photographer he settled down in Brisbane, Australia but he still stays busy in activities related to taking pictures for the people. Recently he was in Jakarta, Indonesia conducting a workshop for local enthusiastic photojournalists. The event was reported on in a story in The Jakarta Post titled: Inspiring Mind: Surviving the War that was submitted by Sudibyo M. Wiradji.

It was a rare treat for the aspiring photojournalists because Tim Page is a special mentor. He is a 72-year-old photojournalist and author, whose name was listed on the “100 Most Influential Photographers of All Time” and whose life has inspired several filmmakers to produce Vietnam War-related films. He carefully observed photos taken by the assigned photojournalists on a laptop by turns in a clean and air-conditioned hotel room. “I think this a good picture,” he said, commenting on a photo. Then he explained why the photo was good.

Page commented that he was able to bear up to the horrors and challenges of combat in Vietnam when you are young you think you are "bullet proof" and you don't think you could get shot or wounded. He admitted he too, as many of the young soldiers did, succumbed to the attractions of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll as a relief mechanism during wartime.

Page stated that witnessing the brutality of war has led him to being engaged in peace movements. His war time photographs are strong statement for the importance of peace between nations.

You are highly recommended to get a copy of Tim's tremendous book titled: Requiem so you can appreciate his outstanding work in war photography.

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John Ketwig is a Vietnam Veteran with some very interesting ideas for the leaders of our nation. Some of those ideas were expressed recently in an opinion piece he submitted to The Roanoke times titled: Ketwig: On Election Day and Veterans Day 2016. Ketwig, of Bedford County, is a Vietnam veteran, a retired automotive executive and the author of "…and a hard rain fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the War in Vietnam."

He said this about his time in the Vietnam War: "America's war in Vietnam lasted ten years, and 4 1/2 million of us took part. Some were in the southern jungle, some were assigned to the cities or coastline or rivers, and I spent my time in the central highlands. I have actually seen a thin glaze of ice on the puddles early in the morning in Vietnam. Everyone who went to Vietnam saw and experienced something different, and far too many of the things we saw seem incredible viewed from the perspective of our everyday lives at home."

In his commentary in the Roanoke Times he noted how much this country is spending on its military programs. Ketwig states more than half of our country’s discretionary spending is funneled directly to the military, with very questionable results. He points out that World War II was the last war fought by this country where we achieved satisfactory results.

Ketwig ends up his commentary with the following suggestion: "that America cut its “defense” budget by half and revitalize our educational institutions, offer universal health care, repair our infrastructure, address climate change, pay off our national debt and still spend more on death and destruction than any other nation on the planet!"

Those are perfectly wonderful suggestions but unfortunately they don't work in the real world. It has been proven over and over. Take for example England. At one time the sun never set on the British Empire and ever since they became a welfare state all their people have chicklet teeth and are on the dole.

We appreciate Ketwig's suggestions but I do not subscribe to them.

I do subscribe to suggesting you read his book, "…and a hard rain fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the War in Vietnam.

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Fifty one years ago 385 young US Marine officers entered The Basic School in December 1965 at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Quantico, Virginia. On October 2, 2016 120 members of their TBS class 1-66 gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico for their very first reunion. The event was described in a story from The Qantico Sentry online titled: Vietnam Veteran Marine officers gather for first reunion after 51 years that was submitted by Adele Uphaus-Conner.

Uphaus-Conner told about the difficulties encountered by organizers of the event which took five years of preparation that included much super detective work. George Ward, of Falls Church, Virginia, the group’s treasurer and a former ambassador to Namibia stated: “Typically in that era, Marines joined, got trained, were deployed, left active duty, got scattered and lost contact.” In those days record keeping methods consisted of rosters with last names and first initials only. This coupled with the fact there were no social internet tools like Facebook, Instagram, Tweeter or email available at the time made locating classmates a challenge.

"The reunion organizers divided the class roster into platoons and took to the Internet. They conducted Google searches, used subscription address location services, called university alumni offices and didn’t neglect word-of- mouth. They narrowed down the results by age and then picked up the phone to make cold calls." The organizers found that 300 of the 385 TBS 1-66 graduates were still living and they were able to get 40% of those to attend with some coming as far away as California.

Class member Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Corps general and former commander-in-chief of United States Central Command, said: "We’re a lot fatter, we don’t have as much hair and it’s not the same color, but we’re still the same guys.” We look a lot older but we’re still pretty studly.”

A consensus of opinion about the reunion and their service in the US Marine Corps was displayed by class member and attendee William Huff, of Columbus, Georgia when he stated: “I think about it every day of my life.” I’m very proud to say that I served with the very best. Heroes wear dog tags, not football pads.”

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Vietnam Veteran Sam Rawlins has come out with a new book and he has scheduled a book signing to help launch the writing. It will be on Saturday, November 5 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 5 at Chapters Bookstore, 31 North Main in Miami, Oklahoma. There was a story in The Miami News Record's miamiok.com website titled: Veteran's book profound story of struggle with PTSD submitted by: Melinda Stotts that covered the book signing, the author and the book.

Sam Rawlins, the author, was raised in Oklahoma and Arkansas in the late 40s and 50s and served in the U.S. Army as a medic after receiving his training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He served in Southeast Asia in 1968-1969.  The title of the book is "A Return to Meadow Wood."  It took Rawlins 10-years to complete and is the fictional, inspirational story of a veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Rawlins said this about the Vietnam experience: “The brutality of war changes men. We went in to the Vietnam War as boys and came out as men, forever changed by the experience. Unknowingly for me, it was the beginning of a life-long spiritual walk. Over the years it has led to my own personal covenant with God to write faith-based, inspirational novels.”

"A Return to Meadow Wood" received a 10 out of 10 stars rating from the Christian Book Review. They made the following comments about the book:  “Sam Rawlins takes the reader on an emotional and healing journey in his deeply emotional novel...A fantastic read and inspirational novel to our Men in Service, especially to those soldiers that suffer from the trauma of war, depression and PTSD.”

If you are in the Northeastern area of Oklahoma this Saturday afternoon you are highly encouraged to drop in and meet this outstanding Vietnam Veteran in person and get a copy of his book autographed.

Melinda Stotts is the associate editor of the Miami News-Record. She can be reached at [email protected]. or followed on Twitter @MelindaStotts1

Vietnam Veterans were sent off to war in a faraway place where many experienced intense, life and death situations. When those veterans have the opportunity to meet up with those who shared those intense situations with them forty or fifty years later it can be a highly emotional event. One such event recently took place in South Bend, Indiana. There was a story about it in The South Bend Tribune titled: Sailors at South Bend reunion meet the Marines they saved during Vietnam War battle submitted by Howard Dukes of the South Bend Tribune and it will be featured in this episode.

The special event was the 2016 USS Joseph Strauss Reunion held this weekend in South Bend, Indiana. The 60 USS Strauss crew members in attendance were joined by three Marines, Joe Swift, Joel Eisenstein and Thomas Petri. In the spring of 1972 Swift and Eisenstein were serving as advisors to the South Vietnam Army near the DMZ when they were attacked by a large force of North Vietnamese Army troops and tanks.

Bad weather precluded air or artillery support. Had it not been for the timely arrival on scene by the USS Strauss and later the USS Buchanan the Marines and their Vietnamese cohorts would have faced dire circumstances. Swift said "that the ships were the only thing that prevented the NVA from overrunning the Marines and the South Vietnam army troops who they were advising."

The 2016 USS Joseph Strauss Reunion was the first time the Marines and their Navy saviors had ever met in person. The reunion was set up by Swift, a Mishawaka native who currently lives in Elkhart and Strauss crew member Charlie McDonald, president of the St. Joseph County Military Honor Park & Museum Board

Also in attendance was Thomas Petri, another retired Marine who wrote a book about the history of the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO), the company rescued by the destroyers. Check out his book below and discover more about these brave Marines.

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In this episode two eminent Vietnam Veterans, Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerry will offer their opinions about the upcoming presidential election. Comments from the two were reported on as they attended a symposium at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on the political and social repercussions of the Vietnam War. Their remarks were found in a story from KVNO News titled: Chuck Hagel, Bob Kerrey Talk U.S. Presidential Campaign that was submitted by Brandon McDermott, KVNO News.

Chuck Hagel, a Republican, is a former Nebraska Senator and the former Secretary of Defense in the Obama Administration. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, was a Nebraska Senator and Governor of Nebraska. Both are Vietnam Veterans. At one point during the symposium the discussion turned to politics and the tumultuous presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The Republican, Chuck Hagel, said “Elections and campaigns should be about hope and it should always be about how can we do things better. How can we unite our country and come together to deal with the big problems? This campaign has gone in a totally different direction,”

Bob Kerrey, the Democrat, noted that social media has played into the discord among Americans. He stated: “Some of it is the impact of social media Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat all these things really increase the level of participation. But I think in some ways it degraded the quality of the debate.”

In true Republican fashion Hagel thinks “We’re too good a country, our fabric, our people are too good. We’ll come back out of it, but it’s going to be painful for a while.” While Kerry is looking for a candidate who is promising to do things  for the middle class, for education, for the environment and all the things that are on the list of people the concerns of people have that involve more government.”

All are encouraged to be careful when they cast their vote in the next presidential election.

It is so important for Vietnam Veterans to tell their stories. The Vietnam War swept away millions of young Americans and sent them far away to fight in a very challenging war. They served their county as best they could and when they came home they were drastically short changed on the gratitude, respect and recognition they deserved for the tremendous service they rendered to their country. They were abuse verbally and physically by misguided antiwar protestors. Many Vietnam Veterans will  not talk about their time in Vietnam to this very day because of the appalling, disgraceful and shameful treatment they received upon their return home.

It is so important that the record be corrected so the Nation can fully realize what true heroes the Vietnam Veterans actually were and still are. There is a high school history in southeastern Washington state who is conducting a project that will help set the records straight. The teacher and project are described in stories found in the Union-Bulletin.com titled: Students seek area Vietnam vets to interview for history project and an announcement on the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center website titled: Vietnam Veterans Invited to Preserve Their Story provided by Linda Wondra, Public Affairs Officer.

College Place High School teacher Paul Carlin is heading up a project with 70 students taking part to interview Vietnam Veterans. Carlin states: “This project gives the students an opportunity to not only learn a very valuable piece of American history through a primary source — a veteran who was there — but also gives students a chance to give back to their community.”

The Walla Walla Veteran Affairs Medical Center is cooperating in the program. According to Linda Wondra, the Public Affairs Officer for The Walla Walla VA Medical Center, her organization will be serving as the primary source for participants in the program. She will serve as the initial contact for veterans interested in participating.

Veterans in the Walla Walla area may contact her at 509-525-5200, ext. 26520, or email her at [email protected].

CLICK HERE for more information about the Veterans History Project (VHP) resources.

One of the primary missions of this podcast, Vietnam Veteran News, is to point out the greatness of the Vietnam Veteran Generation, one as great as any who ever heeded the call of duty from its country. One of the most effective ways to carry out that mission is to share stories about individual members of that generation. The antiwar protestors were terribly wrong when they called returning Vietnam Veterans terrible names and accused them of committing terrible acts. The vast majority of the veterans not only served their country with distinction in Vietnam but when they came home they continued to serve their country in a wide array of civilian pursuits.

On such Vietnam Veteran is Edwin C. “Doc” Fulton, 76, of Queenstown, Maryland. He is highlighted in a story from myeastershoremd.com titled: Helping people is my therapy, veteran says that was submitted by Doug Bishop  ([email protected]). According to Bishop, Fulton received his medical training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, before going into the U.S. Army. As a Captain in the Army Medical Corps Fulton spent 16 months in Vietnam, during 1970-1971, as a U.S. Army doctor with the 82nd Airborne Rangers unit, providing medical care to soldiers serving in combat. The experience changed his life.

After his Army hitch, Fulton matriculated at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore  where he become an orthopedic surgeon. In 2014 he performed his last orthopedic surgery but continues as an advisor to members of his medical practice team of younger doctors at three different area locations.

The outstanding medical services he has provided his community is only the beginning. He is also very active in helping his fellow veterans. He hosts the Healing Waters Fly-Fishing event for injured combat veterans. Fulton is devoted to seeing that today’s veterans receive their promised services from the government and that people understand the sacrifices veterans make in serving our nation.

In addition to all his activities here in the States, he goes back to Vietnam from time to time to serve the needy there with medical services. Fulton has returned to Vietnam 10 times since 2004, administering free medical care to Vietnamese citizens most in need. He is making plans for another trip back to Vietnam this spring with the group Vets With a Mission.

Edwin C. “Doc” Fulton truly is an outstanding representative of the great Vietnam Veteran Generation.

When Vietnam Veterans are honored and remembered it is important to not overlook the Laotian Hmong Tribesmen who bravely served in the CIA secret army of Laos. Veterans of that secret Hmong Army were recently honored at an event in Pensacola, Florida. The event was described in a story from WEARTV.com Channel 3 ABC titled: U.S. allies in Vietnam War recognized for their service that was submitted by David Gonzalez of WEARTV.

The ceremony took place last Thursday in Veterans Memorial Park in Pensacola. Retired United States Air Force Major General Richard spoke delivering these comments: "I saw what they did firsthand," Maj. Gen. Secord said. "We could have not done it without them. Had it not been for unconventional troops like the Hmong tying down the North Vietnamese Army in the north the consequences for the United States would have been much more serious."

The CIA began the creation of a "secret army" of indigenous Hmong people in Laos during the early 1960's to fight a "secret war" against the invading North Vietnamese. The Hmong Secret Army had several missions. They were tasked with helping to block the flow of men and materiel on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They fought against North Vietnamese troop units which reduced the number of hostiles available to fight the Americans in the South. One of their most vital missions was to assist in the rescue of downed pilots.

The Hmong put themselves in great danger, but their loyalty to the US never wavered. They were indeed heroes, saving many Allied forces from capture, imprisonment and death. From 1967–1971, close to 4,000 Hmong soldiers were killed and over 5,000 injured and disabled.

It is indeed fitting that the brave Hmong veterans were honored in Pensacola. It would now be even more fitting if the Senate would pass The Hmong Veterans' Recognition Act.

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