Hi Folks,
Just FYI, copied below is an excerpt from my opening remarks (the “Welcome Address”) to this past Friday’s (Oct. 20) 8th Annual [all-day, multi-speaker] Interdisciplinary Forum on the Vietnam Era, this year entitled, “Coming Home: Vietnam Veterans and Their Families Since.” Some of you were there and heard my remarks; some of you were unable to. But, just, shall we say, for the record, below are some thoughts I hold dear.
Peace,
Sib
Sibley J. Smith, Jr., Director of Education
Vietnam Era Educational Center at the
New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
Garden State Parkway, Exit 116
1 Memorial Lane, P.O. Box 648
Holmdel (Monmouth County), NJ 07733
1-800-648-VETSÂ www.njvvmf.org
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GOOD MORNING. MY NAME IS SIBLEY SMITH, AND I’M THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION … AT THE VIETNAM ERA EDUCATIONAL CENTER, AND ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE NEW JERSEY VIETNAM VETERANS’ MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, OUR MANY VOLUNTEERS, AND MY STAFF CO-WORKERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KELLY WATTS, COLLECTIONS MANAGER AND VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR KATIE WITZIG, AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT LYNN DUANE, I’D LIKE TO WELCOME YOU TO THE EIGHTH ANNUAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY “FORUM ON THE VIETNAM ERAâ€, THIS YEAR ENTITLED, “COMING HOME: VIETNAM VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES SINCE THE WAR.â€
YOU KNOW, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE EVER NOTICED, BUT, WHEN MANY VIETNAM VETERANS GREET EACH OTHER, THEY DO SO IN A SPECIAL WAY. WHEN THEY SHAKE HANDS, MANY DO SO WITH A CLASPING HAND, LIKE WHAT WE CALLED IN THE SIXTIES A “SOUL SHAKE.†YOU’LL ALSO SEE THEM HUG. THEY HUG EACH OTHER, BECAUSE, WHEN THEY CAME HOME, AFTER SURVIVING THE HELL OF THE VIETNAM WAR, MANY HAVING NO CHOICE BUT TO SERVE, MANY … STILL QUITE YOUNG, COMING FROM THIS “TEENAGE WAR,†… NO ONE HUGGED THEM. AND YOU CAN WELL IMAGINE THAT, AFTER SUCH AN EXPERIENCE AS WARFARE, A GOOD HUG WOULD GO A LONG WAY.
TOO MANY OF US, BACK HERE, SAFE ON THE HOMEFRONT, TURNED OUR BACKS ON THE VIETNAM VETERAN. WE WERE ANGRY, AND WE WERE ASHAMED. AND WE TOOK IT OUT ON THEM. THE G.I.s. THE VETERANS. EVERY DAY AT THE VIETNAM ERA EDUCATIONAL CENTER TODAY, ON A CONTINUAL VIDEO LOOP, VIETNAM VETERAN TOM CONTI (BIG RED ONE, FIRST INFANTRY DIVISION) SAYS “THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN MAD AT THE LEADERS AND POLITICIANS WHO SENT US. THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN MAD AT US.â€
THE VIETNAM VETERAN, FOR THE MOST PART, FOUND THEIR ONLY FRIENDS WERE FELLOW VIETNAM VETERANS. THE ONLY ONES WHO UNDERSTOOD THEM AND WHAT THEY WENT THROUGH, AND WHAT THEY’RE STILL GOING THROUGH WERE FELLOW VIETNAM VETERANS. AND, UNLIKE VETERANS FROM PREVIOUS AMERICAN WARS, THEY WERE NOT WELCOMED HOME WITH PARADES. THEY WERE NOT EVEN THANKED FOR ALL THAT THEY DID, AND FOR ALL THAT THEY LOST IN DOING IT, INCLUDING MORE THAN 58,000 BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN UNIFORM IN VIETNAM DURING AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR IN HISTORY.
YOU’LL SEE THEM “DAP†WITH EACH OTHER. YOU’LL SEE THEM HUG. AND YOU’LL HEAR THEM SAY TO ONE ANOTHER THOSE WORDS THEY SO LONGED TO HEAR FROM US WHEN THEY RETURNED FROM THEIR TOURS OF DUTY, THE WORDS “WELCOME HOME.â€Â AND THEY, AND THEIR FAMILIES, WHOSE LIVES HAVE ALSO BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN BY THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE, HAVE BEEN ENDEAVORING TO TRULY COME HOME EVER SINCE.
AND THEY HAVE CHANGED THIS NATION. FOLKS GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TODAY TO WELCOME HOME TROOPS FROM OVERSEAS WAR DUTY. WHILE STILL FAR FROM IDEAL, HEALTHCARE AND OTHER ASSISTANCE FOR VETERANS HAS INCREASED TREMENDOUSLY SINCE VIETNAM. AND HONOR AND GRATITUDE IS BEING RESTORED TO THE VIETNAM VETERAN, AS TO VETERANS OF THE PAST AND G.I.s AND VETERANS OF THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE. “THE WALL†WAS BUILT IN WASHINGTON. A “WELCOME HOME†PARADE WAS HELD DOWN BROADWAY. THE NEW JERSEY VIETNAM VETERANS’ MEMORIAL WAS BUILT AND DEDICATED. BUT ALL THESE ADVANCES ARE THANKS ONLY TO THE VIETNAM VETERANS THEMSELVES. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO FOUGHT TO RESTORE THEIR PLACE OF HONOR AND DIGNITY IN OUR NATION, AND TO INSURE THAT OTHERS IN SIMILAR SITUATIONS WILL NOT FACE THAT SENSE OF A LOSS OF HOME THAT THEY SUFFERED.
AT THE 1995 DEDICATION OF THE NEW JERSEY VIETNAM VETERANS’ MEMORIAL, NEW JERSEYAN GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF HAD THIS TO SAY, … “I AM A VETERAN. AND THE VETERAN’S TITLE I’M MOST PROUD OF … IS THE TITLE OF VIETNAM VETERAN. I AM VERY, VERY PROUD TO BE A VIETNAM VETERAN.â€
ME, I AM PROUD TO DAILY WORK FOR AND IN THE COMPANY OF VIETNAM VETERANS. A TITLE GIVEN TO ME BY A VIETNAM VETERAN, … GIVEN TO ME, THE NON-VETERAN … THAT I AM MOST PROUD OF … IS “BROTHER†– A TERM NOT USED LIGHTLY BY THAT SPECIAL BAND OF BROTHERS, AMERICAN VIETNAM VETERANS. AND I TRY TO CONTINUALLY HONOR THAT TITLE BY MY ACTIONS. AND ONE SUCH ACTION, I’D LIKE TO TAKE NOW, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ALL THE OTHER NON-VETERANS IN THIS AUDIENCE.:
PLEASE, IF YOU ARE NOT A VIETNAM VETERAN (AND NOTE, I MEAN “VIETNAM VETERAN†TO INCLUDE CIVILIANS WHO SERVED IN VIETNAM IN SUPPORT OF OUR TROOPS, SUCH AS THE LIBRARIANS AND RECREATION COORDINATORS OF ARMY SPECIAL SERVICES, AND RED CROSS AND U.S.O. VOLUNTEERS), … IF YOU ARE NOT A VIETNAM VETERAN, WOULD YOU PLEASE JOIN ME AND STAND IN HONOR OF THE VIETNAM VETERANS AMONG US, TO WHOM I SAY, … THANK YOU, … AND WELCOME HOME.
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