Vietnam vets unite in charity, remembrance

Vietnam vets unite in charity, remembrance

By BOB BAIRD

Each year on the Saturday after their observance of the traditional May 30 Memorial Day, the members of Rockland County Chapter 333 of the Vietnam Veterans of America come together to unwind after an intense week.

Their emotions build with preparations for the long Memorial Day weekend and they don't ease until after May 30, when the veterans maintain vigils at several watchfires across Rockland.

This year's "stand down" as they call it, will take place Saturday at the Kearsing Edwards American Legion Post in Pomona. As usual, there will be a pig roast, lots of typical picnic food and drink and camaraderie that can only be shared by those who have placed their lives not only in front of the enemy, but in each other's hands.

     Unlike other years, it's not open to the public. That's because the turnout is expected to top 300.

The event will celebrate the 20th anniversaries of the group in Rockland and of their annual watchfires, and raise money to help a young child with a beautiful smile and a serious illness – one for which there's no cure.

Three-year-old Olivia Taylor of West Haverstraw is the niece of Durwood "Buddy" Gibson, who's retired from the Rockland County Sheriff's Department and is a past president of the VVA's Rockland chapter. She has a rare, progressive, hereditary illness – Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome – that over time causes the brain to atrophy. Olivia can't walk or talk, must be fed all meals and needs a special adaptive seat to hold her erect. But that doesn't keep her from beaming a huge smile from beneath the cutest little pigtails.

Helping her and her family are the goals of the event and an anniversary journal being published by the veterans.

But that's what the Vietnam veterans and their association do.

For three years, Chapter 333 has helped cook and prepare food so the Salvation Army can provide Thanksgiving dinner and food baskets in Spring Valley.

Each holiday season, "Operation Santa Claus" – that's veteran Bruce Wichtendahl of Spring Valley with the white beard and red suit – makes stops at Jawonio, Camp Venture, the Rainbow Connection Day Care Center in Nanuet and in Haverstraw village to distribute toys and other gifts.

At Easter, they return to the Rainbow Connection, once again spreading holiday joy. "We've had a special attachment to the Rainbow Connection for five years," says VVA director and past president Howard Goldin.

It's not just children who are helped by the Rockland chapter.

They've recently approved a plan to offer five $1,000 scholarships annually to the new generation of veterans returning from Iraq. "The money can be used for schooling or simply to ease a financial need," says Goldin, because of the wide variety of issues facing Iraq vets. The program will be funded by money left to the chapter by Ruth May Seaberry of Spring Valley, who died in 2004.

The veterans also sponsor Las Vegas nights at the Veterans Administration hospitals in Montrose and Castle Point.

It's all a lot of work, but there are lots of hands, too, with more than 250 members.

"Every year," says Goldin, "we get more and more vets who haven't been involved who come out to the watchfires," which are ignited at midnight and burn throughout May 30 to symbolically guide home those missing in action. Now, 20 years after the first fire was ignited, they burn for 24 hours each year at Bowline Park in Haverstraw, on the Piermont Pier, on Clausland Mountain and at Ramapo's Eugene Levy Park.

In the view of the VVA, Goldin says, "The watchfires aren't just about Vietnam veterans. They're about all veterans."

The chapter, naturally enough, has a strong connection to Vietnam. Twice they have sponsored visits of a mobile replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall and in 2000 took on the educational project, "Vietnam Memories: Stories Left at The Wall," using its exhibits and their own memories to teach about Vietnam in public schools and at Rockland Community College. They tell the stories of those who didn't come home and even help veterans return to a place many never wanted to visit.

This fall the group will again pay their way on a third trip to Vietnam – "We don't count the time the government sent us," Goldin says wryly, "that was a freebie." A party of 40 will help to build two schools in Da Lat in the Montagnard region and in the Mekong Delta.

To do that, Goldin and chapter President Ed Frank of Stony Point have been visiting Rotary and other service clubs to do fundraising to supplement money from varied other sources including a Dress Down Day at Felix Festa Middle School and the efforts of Tappan Zee High School's Rotary Interact Club.

During a 2005 trip, members delivered an ambulance to Vietnam and met with the U.S. ambassador in Hanoi for a closed-door briefing on prisoners of war and those missing in action – an issue that was going unaddressed in 1982, prompting the creation of the national organization.

Five years later, in 1987, a letter from Jerry Donnellan, now Rockland's director of veterans services, announced the first meeting of a Rockland chapter. "For many," his letter said, "the war isn't over," going on to cite problems with Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress, drugs, alcohol, divorce and unemployment, among others.

Even 20 years later, this weekend's gathering – coming after the intense Memorial Day observances – is a chance for veterans to clear their heads. It's celebration of an anniversary, but in Goldin's words it's more than that: "It's a celebration of survival."

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