Vietnam War Memorial honors Nebraskans who served

It was a de ja vu moment when a girlfriend handed me a book to read a couple of weeks ago. Until I started reading The Women by Kristin Hannah, (a fictional story of nurses serving in Vietnam), the Vietnam War had become quite honestly, a 55 year old memory that surfaced now and again when reminiscing about the young men I knew who had been killed in action.

But I was never in Vietnam. I never experienced the horrendous reality of war or the brutal denial of those men’s heroism when they came home to protestors calling them names, spitting on them, degrading the fact that they had survived a war that wasn’t even called a war but rather a “conflict”. Tell that to those young men, to their grieving spouses, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children.

Last week I traveled to Papillion with my husband, meeting up with his surviving brother and two sisters to attend the dedication of the new Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One of his sisters is married to a Vietnam Veteran which made for an even more poignant moment as we approached the area.

Riding high above the SumTur Amphitheater, a Huey helicopter is suspended in the sky, its side open to the elements with two impressive renditions of a gunner and a lookout leaning out as if searching the ground. Below stand two soldiers cradling a wounded comrade between them, hoping to get him into the helicopter and on the way to medical help in time. You see on all their faces the reality of what dangers they were tempting as the helicopter approaches. The helicopter centerpiece flew three thousand hours during the war.

As you enter the area, there is Nebraska’s wall with the litany of names listed. Nebraska lost 396 men in the war zones and those men are on the wall in D.C. but on Nebraska’s wall also appear four more names, four more young men, three of them brothers, finally acknowledged for the sacrifice of their lives on a support ship, the Frank E. Evans when it, on the coast of Vietnam during an allies exercise, collided with an Australian carrier outside of the war zone.

Eleven obelisks stand silently around the area. Each signifies a year during which the United States was involved in the “conflict”. On one face of the stone is engraved the names of battles fought during that year, on another a listing of significant occurrences in the United States.

Displays of tiles with soldiers photos and names on them exist there also. Should you wish to add a tile to honor a Vietnam Veteran you can go to their website: www.nvvmf.org for more information. Additionally, on their webpage you can, as a veteran, add your story to the page or friends and family can share memories of those lost.

There are plans for a research center adjacent to the memorial. The organization is fund-raising for that now. Though we were there during the day, the photos I saw of it during dusk, everything backlit, look impressive. As with any dedication, the large group of attendees made it hard to take every detail in, but I will say this, it is worth the time to see.

Nebraska may have been the last to build a memorial honoring the Vietnam Veterans but I believe that it may well be the best!