Vietnam veterans, living and deceased, honored for their service today
In a curious ending to a bizarre conflict, American troops board jets under the watchful eyes of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong observers in Saigon, March 29, 1973. The Communists counted each GI boarding the transport planes; the GIs ignored the Communists. (AP Photo)
In a curious ending to a bizarre conflict, American troops board jets under the watchful eyes of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong observers in Saigon, March 29, 1973. The Communists counted each GI boarding the transport planes; the GIs ignored the Communists. (AP Photo)
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Today is one that isn't widely observed unless one served in the Vietnam War or has family who know of veterans who did.
This is March 29, which is recognized across the nation as a day to give tribute to those who took part in the war, which covered 1959 through 1975.
In 2017, former President Donald J. Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 into law.
On March 29, 1973, the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam disestablished. It also was the last day the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. This same day, the North Vietnamese Hanoi government released the last of its acknowledged prisoners of war.
From a historical perspective, the nation's involvement in what was French-Indo China began rather slowly with the deployment of advisers in the early 1950s. Over the next decade, the conflict grew and expanded with the full deployment of combat units in July of 1965.
Finally, the last U.S. personnel were evacuated from Vietnam in April of 1975.
Among those who served were Lycoming County residents, many who enlisted and others drafted into the war.
Conflicted as an American and Black airman
Richard James spent his time at an Air Force radar station in Thailand, according to a special military tribute book, "Defenders of Freedom Vol. 2." Author David Thompson interviewed James and others from the area who were in the war.
James acknowledged not only facing pressure being in the combat zone but also prejudice.
"I felt like I was never going to get out of there," James said.
On any given day at the radar station, hundreds of airplanes, many that shot up, constantly landed and took off at the airstrip.
When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in April of 1968, James no longer was in Thailand but was on-duty in Maine.
"I was conflicted," he said.
That mixture of emotions came with the realization that, as a Black American, James, and other soldiers of all races, had done their duty and made sacrifices for a country that had anti-war protestors screaming "baby killer" in their face.
While in Maine, James struggled internally when asked to re-enlist. Jobs were few and far between and he considered it.
Eventually, he made a decision.
"I managed to get through the war without any physical or mental scars and I didn't want to press my luck," he said.
Discharged from the service, James lived in Philadelphia and years later was asked by his sister, Beatrice, to move to Williamsport.
While here, James became a vocal advocate for his city, often getting involved in civil rights events and spent two years on the Our Towns 2010 board, which looked for improvements in the business retention and growth and attractions such as entertainment and the arts.
Edgar Smith of Williamsport, a platoon sergeant in the 589th Engineering Battalion, served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War.
Smith's main duties were to join other soldiers to sweep land for booby traps, build hundreds of structures to support the war effort and construction guard bunkers.
"The Viet Cong were pretty slick," Smith said. "They could take a bamboo pole 90 to 100 feet long and put a grenade on it and bend that thing down and let it loose."
Smith recalled the misery of often having to wear rain-drenched clothing, humidity and being on constant watch.
"You didn't go anywhere without a weapon," Smith said.
He returned unscathed and became a military recruiter.
"The sergeants and senior non-coms were very good mentors," said Tom Donohue, of Loyalsock Township.
"I grew up in Vietnam," he said. "I learned a lot and was green."
Donohue spent a combined 42 years in the military, most of it with the Army Reserves.
Born in Munich, Germany, his father was an Army warrant officer who served during World War II and the Korean War.
He carried on his father's legacy of military service, retiring with the rank of command sergeant major.
The harsh treatment some Vietnam veterans received upon returning home was not lost on Donohue. The anti-war effort at home was balanced by his service and commitment.
Donohue said that when he came home on leave between his first and second tours and when he finally was discharged, the first thing he did was change his clothes.
"You kept a low profile," he told the Defenders of Freedom writer Thompson.
"It was very anti-war," he said.
Galen Klobe of Rauchtown had three tours with the 101st Airborne Division, 7th Special Forces Group and 8th Infantry Division. He spoke of his time seven miles from the border with Cambodia on "aggressive patrols, on with battalion-sized search and destroy missions."
Klobe said the soldiers worked with the locals to be recruited and trained by the special forces.
Richard Sieg of Hughesville, was in the 1st Marine Division and part of the Tet Offensive.
The 1968 offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns in the war involving a series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam.
Sieg was on a "kill team" 15 miles from Da Nang, sweeping villages and providing medical assistance and provision of food for the villagers and children.
Navy veteran Chuck Stutzman of Williamsport enlisted out of high school.
He first sought to study nuclear electronics but was given hospital corps school instead.
It turned into a lifelong career.
When he got orders to go to Vietnam he served assisting with casualties in the field.
He also carried a dental kit and did temporary fillings.
"We went 90 days where we received fire every day," said the purple heart recipient and a member of the Lycoming County Veterans Memorial Park Commission.
The Viet Cong were inventive, using discarded cans that GIs left and filling them with powder, feces, metal screws that were lit up and thrown.
Stutzman recalled stepping on a mine. His team tied six belts together to help yank him off far enough from the possible exploding mine. After that was successful, and the mine did not go off, they put a quarter stick of C4 on it and touched it off.
It blew a crater 8 feet across, he said.
"I was comfortable because I (am) a Christian and if something happened I knew where I was going to," Stutzman said.
Neil Bixler was in the U.S. Navy as a petty officer. His duty was chasing Russians in the Baltic Sea. "Governments want war, not the people," he stated in the Defenders to Freedom.
The ship posted the words Happy New Year and ran up alongside a Russian ship.
Polka music was played and then switched over to "Evil Ways," he said.
Jess Hackenburg, of Montorsville, was in the 18th Aviation Co. supporting Special Forces near the Laotian and Cambodian borders. The short airfield was 1,000 feet long.
Hackenburg, in later years, led the campaign to get a monument situated in the Veterans Memorial Park at Wahoo Drive and West Fourth Street.
There are 43 names on the monument.
"It was a total group effort," Hackenburg said, as are all of the fundraising and community support the commission receives as the park continues to expand, he added.
"I say if I didn't come back from Vietnam alive after 26 months I sure would want someone to have enough interest to erect a monument and put my name on it," he said.
The monument to the war is unique. It marks the war years 1959 to 1975. It has an American eagle and American flag with 43 names on it. It was installed May 26, 2001 and lists the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Air Force – not yet Space Force.
The words signify how it is dedicated in honor of those from Lycoming County who willingly served and willingly sacrificed their lives for our grateful nation, the United States of America.
Congress outlined five objectives for the U.S. Vietnam War Commemoration. The primary one is to thank and honor the Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice on behalf of the nation, with distinct recognition of former prisoners of war and families of those still listed as missing in action.
The four remaining objectives highlight the service of Armed Forces and support organizations during the war; pay tribute to wartime contributions at home by Americans; highlight technology, science and medical advances made during the war and recognize contributions by allies.
By presidential proclamation, the commemoration will continue through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2025.