Vietnam veteran Mack Payne was one of several guest speakers. Payne, who trained at Fort Wolters, flew Cobra gunships for the 101st Airborne.
Posted: Monday, July 20, 2015 4:22 pm
By DAVID MAY | Lone Star News Group
PARKER COUNTY – Vietnam-era veteran Keith Vaughan became unable to talk through the tears that began streaming down his face, tears carrying the faces and memories of friends he lost to that war.
“I am just here to support my fellow veterans,” the Weatherford resident said before breaking down and excusing himself.
Walt Boyce, on the other hand, was not at a loss for words following Saturday’s Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration event at the National Vietnam War Museum. The Azle man served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a bomb loader, seeing combat duty in Vietnam before tours in Thailand, Okinawa and Guam before retiring in 1974.
Asked what Saturday’s commemoration, attended by about 200 people at the museum located east of Mineral Wells in far western Parker County, meant to him, Boyce said, “For me, it is finally getting recognition for what we tried to do,” he said. “Like the decal on the back of my window says, ‘We were winning when I left.’
”The theme for Saturday’s event was about giving recognition and thanks to those Vietnam veterans who, unlike many others who fought for the U.S., came home to more jeers than cheers, the result of an unpopular war that divided the nation and changed America forever, both socially and politically.
Boyce, like other Vietnam veterans, believes the nation has come around, and most people have begun to thank them for their service and sacrifice.
“Here in the last couple of years they have started to go ahead and thank us for our service,” said Boyce. “I wear my patches on my hat, and I am proud of them, my ribbons, to let people know I am proud. I wear these T-shirts that say, ‘We will never be forgotten.’ That’s for the people out there (referring to the museum’s Vietnam Memorial Wall replica) who gave their all. That’s who I supported. If I saved one (person) then I did my job. The ones whose names are on the wall are the ones who count.”
Saturday’s event is among similar 50th anniversary commemorative events taking place across the nation for the Vietnam War, in which U.S. involvement took place from 1959 to 1973. More than 2.5 million Americans served in the military during that time. More than 58,000 Americans were killed and, at present, more than 1,600 remain missing in action.
The POWs and MIAs were remembered Saturday with the ceremonial dinner table setting featuring an empty chair and symbolic table placements that were explained by Penny and Ron Chandler, of American Legion Post 163 in Weatherford, which organized the event.
The commemoration was originally planned for May, but was postponed due to heavy spring rains.
Proclamations were read from the City of Weatherford and Mayor Dennis Hooks, Parker County and Judge Mark Riley, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and State Rep. Phil King.
Special guest speaker was Mack Payne, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who flew Cobra gunships for the 101st Airborne and is now a public speaker and author of several books, including “Vietnam Veteran Memoirs: The Adventures of a Florida Flatlander in Vietnam.”
Payne trained at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, noting he graduated with Class 70-4.
“We are here today to publicly salute you for your service and sacrifice, because that hasn’t been done enough through the years and that is changing, beginning with events like today,” Payne said.
He said the men and women who fought in Vietnam might not be remembered as “The Greatest Generation” like their World War II American counterparts are called, but Payne said they are part of a “great generation.”
He told his experience of being shot down in battle, the use of the chemical Agent Orange and the feeling of those who survived a year’s duty, knowing they could go home.
“We just knew they were going to roll out the red carpet for us that we deserved,” Payne said.
That didn’t happen.
Payne said America’s Vietnam veterans can claim victory in the fact America won the Cold War.
Also speaking Saturday was Barbara Mills, the wife of a Vietnam veteran, who gave her accounts of raising a family and running a home while her husband served and fought.
Married to Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Mills in January 1965, she said, “Was I prepared to be a military wife? Absolutely not. Life was difficult, especially with two active children.”
“When Larry came home from Thailand, he was not the same man who left a year earlier, and I was not the same woman,” said Mills. “The war had changed us both, and at times it seemed our marriage was falling apart.”
They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.
“Larry said, ‘War is hell,’ and he was right,” Mills said. “It is hell on the men, and it is hell on the families. I matured a lot during the Vietnam War. It made me a better woman.”
Another speaker, U.S. Air Force Col. John Murphy, remembered the names of his “buddies” who died in combat, all but one he flew with on missions. He, like so many others who made it home have done, questioned why he survived while others around him didn’t.
“I want to thank all the veterans, wherever you served,” Murphy said. “I thank you for your service. I thank all the family members who waited for us to return.”
