60s memories include Vietnam; panel shares perspectives

A panel presentation culminating this week’s series of Cultural Historical Awareness Program (CHAP) events at Porterville College provided the audience with a number of perspectives from the Vietnam War era.

A few professors and a student took turns giving mostly somber testimonies of the ways in which they were affected by the war. A couple of them were combat soldiers, one was an entertainer for the United Service Organization, one made the choice not to go to war and presented his case on paper to the draft board, and another looks after her father, who is a Vietnam veteran and still suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result.

“I never served a day in uniform, but I respect those who did,” said PC professor, Ted Wise. He was attending Chapman College in Southern California when he received a draft card.

“At the time, I was doing a lot of thinking, so I decided as an act of consciousness, that I would not serve in the war and I would not cross the border to Canada,” he said.

“Among my memories was going into the draft board with reams of paper that I wrote on why I didn’t want to fight in the war... I was thankful for being able to use the beauty and power of language to present what I felt was justice,” said Wise.

Dan Boone talked of his experience fighting in Vietnam and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and being aboard the Lexington Carrier.

“My dad was killed in the military in World War II, and that thought of not going into the Navy never crossed my mind,” he said. “there were times I felt sorry I did that, in Vietnam and in the Cuban Missile Crisis.” However, Boone was sure he wanted to serve his country, he said.

Linda Bailey, a professor and librarian, was a student at Fresno State during the war, when she was cast as an understudy for every female role in the school drama, “Stop the World I’m Getting Off,” and through that experience, she became an entertainer for the USO, which was affiliated with the American Theater Organization.

She was sent to entertain troops in Guam and Vietnam, full time, six days of the week, and she would visit them in military hospitals.

“A lot of times, it didn’t take anything at all. Being around them was enough,” she said. As she talked with them, she would have to be careful not to react to some of their disturbing physical appearances.

“I had soldiers saying, ‘Why are they rioting in Berkeley? I’m doing the best I can ma’am.’”

Julie Grisbeck, a student at PC, talked about the post-war experience of her father who fought in the Vietnam War, as well as the experiences of his family members.

“A lot of people don’t know what these veterans have been through,” she said. “My dad, we just thought he was crazy.”

Flashbacks, she said, continue to cause him suffering today. “He relives it every day of his life.” During the Fourth of July, he takes a personal vacation to avoid the sound of fireworks.

“It cost a marriage... When he was sleeping, you never woke him by the arms or near the face, because he’d come up swinging,” Grisbeck said. “It took me two years to fight for his rights to get him disabled through the [Veterans Affairs Department].”

She believes what hurts most for Vietnam veterans is, unlike in any other war, they were not accepted upon their return. “There are veterans who will go and be denied benefits, and their families won’t help them, so they turn to drugs and alcohol, or even worse — they commit suicide,” she said.

Her main message was, “If you see a vet’, thank them; they deserve it.”

PC Professor, Robert Johnson, who is a combat Vietnam veteran himself, acknowledged the “peripheral victims in the war” — the families of soldiers.

“When a person goes to war, the family goes to war, and the family goes to war forever. The extension is all the people that suffered that weren’t in combat,” he said.

Maurice Ecung stood up and addressed the social issues that resulted, domestically, from the war. Being part of a special unit at the March Airforce Base in Riverside, that dealt with race relations problems, he became exposed to the looming issue of racial tension that turned U.S. soldiers against one another. Then, there was a culture shock for soldiers being exposed to social changes back home, once they returned.

“One guy, the biggest problem he had was his wife wouldn’t listen to him anymore,” Ecung said. “When these guys got back, they couldn’t deal with these independent, strong women.”

Lori Dillon, a student, recalled some of her own experiences during the Vietnam War era, following the presentation. “I was a little kid then, but I remember playing outside and you would see a car pull up to the neighbors’ house, and the men in uniform would tell the family that their son died. It was so sad,” she said.

--Sabrina Ziegler is a freelance reporter. Send e-mail in care of recorder@portervillerecorder.com.