POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony

The Veterans Administration Health Care System, Buffalo, NY conducted it's annual POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony on September 19, 2003.

Chapter 77 Vietnam Veterans of America provided the color guard and POW/MIA Table Ceremony for the event. Color Guard members shown in the attached picture are Paul Pietrowski, Al Brusetti, Pete Montemurno, Bob Metz and Bill Bectel.

Chapter 77 has participated in this event for the last eight years in honor of those still unaccounted for.

Operation Gift Lift 2003

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Buffalo New York

Inscribed are the names of 508 Western New Yorkers who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War.

Dedicated July 7^th , 1984.

Gold Star Mother's Sunday September 25, 2005. VVA Chapter 77 and Associates sponsored an Interdenominational service at the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church to honor the Gold Star Families.

Congresswoman Slaughter listens to concerns of VVA Chapter 77 members.

THANKS LOUISE.

As part of VVA's continuing efforts to educate younger American's about the Vietnam War, Chapter 77 collaborated with Shea's Performing Arts Center and local high school history teachers to conduct a workshop on the Vietnam War.

Shea's Theater will present the Billy Joel and Tywla Tharp musical, Movin Out from April 18 - 23, 2006 and Jennifer Fitzery, Education Program Coordinator of Shea's wanted to put students and veterans together as part of the prelude to the show.

On Saturday March 25, 2006, Jennifer brought 27 high school students and 3 teachers to meet with Vietnam Veterans at Chapter 77's museum. There were over 25 veterans in attendance, from Chapter‘s 77, 20 and 681 and 18 agreed to be part of the interview program.

The veterans presented a PowerPoint slide show used our education program in Western New York. We did a brief history of Vietnam prior to America’s involvement and then each veteran introduced themselves and provided some personal stories and answered questions. Pete Galle and Cecil Young from Chapter 20 brought their traveling diorama displays which added to all the artifacts at the museum.

When the presentation was completed 18 veterans were paired with 27 students who conducted personal interviews to gain more first hand knowledge of who we are and our experience during and after the Vietnam War.

The students will now prepare a presentation that will be on display at Shea’s during the run of the Movin Out play. After action reports from everyone who participated indicated that all had a good time and the program was worth the effort.

The Movin Out touring company and Shea’s Performing Arts Center have also granted permission for VVA Chapter 77 to set up a veterans information table during the run of the show.

Below is a picture showing the veterans presenting to a standing room only crowd.

The following story was printed in the Tonawanda News and distributed with permission of the reporter.

Program shows a first-hand history of Vietnam War

BY ERIC O'CONNOR
CNHI News Service

City of Tonawanda— Traditional history textbooks don’t explain the difference between camouflage and subdued uniforms during the Vietnam War, but veteran John Portik said it was sometimes the difference between life and death.
The textbooks could say the gear was heavy and the terrain unforgiving, but it still doesn’t seem so bad until veteran Cecil Young describes carrying backpacks almost equal to his body weight for weeks in 112-degree jungle heat.
History may be written by the conquerors, but many times, it ignores the soldiers, the men and women on the ground.
The goal of a new program by Shea’s Performing Arts Center is to give students a less-filtered education of the Vietnam War in preparation for the upcoming production of “Movin’ Out,” a musical centered on five friends during the war featuring the music of Billy Joel.

To help, Shea’s enlisted the help of the Vietnam Veterans of American Chapter 77 based in the City of Tonawanda.
“It’s our responsibility to educate,” said Patrick Welch, director of the local VVA. “A textbook might have a quarter page or a half page on the Vietnam War. It’s pathetic. It smacks of the educational bias that still persists against Vietnam veterans.”

More than 20 high school students in the program visited the VVA museum on Main Street recently to view a Power Point presentation and conduct one-on-one interviews with veterans.

Kelsey Costello, a Kenmore East High School student, spent time with Portik and Young, going over survival tactics during the 10-year conflict. She learned that subdued uniforms had black lettering on a green background while the more conspicuous camouflage threads had yellow lettering on a black background.
The students will take what they learned and create a project to be displayed on the play’s opening night, April 18. Some will make a posterboard while others will write a poem, said Jennifer Fitzery, education coordinator for Shea’s.
“They not only get to learn things, they get to create creative writing projects,” she said. “It allows them to make a connection with the community.”
During the personal interviews, students got a chance to ask veterans all the questions they may have otherwise been afraid to ask: Were you afraid when you got drafted? Did you miss your family?
“It’s hard to talk sometimes,” Portik said. “But a lot of guys are holding up well. Knock on wood.”
Contact Eric O’Connor at 693-1000, Ext. 115.

‘Movin’ Out’
• WHEN: April 18 to 23
• WHERE: Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St., Buffalo
• MORE INFO: www.sheas.org

Copyright © 1999-2005 cnhi, inc.

1972 aerial view of NKP is attached too, taken from the cockpit of an A-1E Skyraider, just as they were being retired from Combat. 

Z O O M I E H E A V E N

Originally written in June 1989.

Author: Keith Harold Rohring, USAF Jan 64 to Dec 67

Brother: Kevin Michael Rohring USMC Feb 66 to Mar 27, 67 - KIA - Vietnam

Dedicated to a guy named John, a true and valued USMC survivor of TET, 1968 at

the Khe Sanh firebase in Northwest I Corps near the DMZ - who bestowed upon this

USAF volunteer his never-ending, prolific gratitude for the USAF flyers who risked

their collective 'necks' for this lowly Grunt during the Siege at Khe Sanh which lasted

for 77 days from January to April 1968.

If only all the USAF guys who lost their limbs, souls or lives could hear this. . .

* * * * Z O O M I E H E A V E N * * * *

(softly and slowly at first)

No CIB's, no Purple Hearts,

just R.E.M.F.'s were my breatheren.

But surely when I'm old and gray,

I'll go to ZOOMIE HEAVEN.

You wonder how this guarantee

might have accrued to me;

The first I heard about it

was just recently.

While at The Wall on Memorial Day

in May of '89;

The day that Rolling Thunder came

To The Wall the second time.

We walked along The Wall that day

and walked again that night.

When "ZOOMIE !", "ZOOMIE !" loud and clear,

beckoned from the right.

Among the guys assembled on

The steps near Mirror Lake;

A "little guy" - 'bout five foot six from

Khe Sanh '68.

(speed up)

He'd seen my Air Force patch, on the

Jungle threads I wore;

and as he hugged me many times,

he told me how he'd swore.

When he was hunkered down in mud

in a bunker on Route 9;

That if he ever got outta there,

that he'd try to find.

(louder and faster)

Every swinging Mother's Son

who'd worn the Air Force Blue.

For he was with six thousand Grunts

against an enemy who

Had mustered 40,000 troops

Cong, and NVA too.

The enemy, they thought, had

another Dien Bien Phu !

The days were hot or they were wet,

the nights were terribly long.

And through it all, the Grunts hung on

they fought against the Cong.

The Air Force started dropping bombs,

Then more and more each day,

Rained them on those Khe Sanh hills,

Denuding them, they say.

(loudest and fastest)

The aircraft making ammo drops,

took out the wounded too.

Murderous fire and mortar rounds

brought down a bird or two.

But still the missions, just the same,

continued their re-supply.

The air crews knew the odds were bad,

an easy way to die.

Far overhead, B-52's were

dropping tons and tons,

F-105's and Phantom Jets;

with Napalm and their guns.

Close air support had saved the day,

we had lost five hundred men.

The enemy had suffered too,

10,000 met their end.

Some distant mind in Washington

Declared the battle stopped.

We walked away from Khe Sanh's mud,

Paid with blood, drop by drop.

( softly and slowly again)

It's twenty years since we were there,

it seems like yesterday,

And out of nowhere comes a Grunt:

yelling "ZOOMIES ! ALL THE WAY !".

Us ZOOMIES rarely ever knew

the combat troop's desires.

In spite of all the gut-wrench fear

to live another day.

When we talk to combat vets,

It's then we appreciate

The comfort ZOOMIES lived in,

however our final fate.

(loud and slow)

But - Never doubt those flying crews,

those Angels of the skys,

For they have saved a many a Grunt,

and we all know the reason why.

What Marines on land have always known,

the Air Force knows on high . . .

You need not be a Jarhead,

To answer . . . "Semper Fi" . . .

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> End of Poem <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

With apologies to the US Navy and Marine Corps flyers who also flew these highly

dangerous, nay, deadly missions at Khe Sanh, during TET of 1968.

And with further apologies to the Mother's Daughters who also served in the USAF

and other services. No slight is intended - Daughter just didn't rhyme. . .

Keith Rohring, 1025 Seine Drive, Lake Saint Louis, MO, 63367 and 636 - 734 - 3238

I served my time in-country and in SEA July to Nov 1966.

For those who do not know, a ZOOMIE is an Air Force person to a USMC ground

pounder; who is a Grunt, someone who walks into battle, and walks out - usually.

ZOOMIES fly in to battle, far overhead, out of danger's way . . .sorta. . .

R.E.M.F.'S are Rear Echelon M F's - people who stay in the (SAFE) rear areas and

who have 'cake-walk' jobs - like personnel and payroll functions (I am guilty) - many

thousands of the 58,200 or so names on The Wall are R.E.M.F. folks . . .sorta safe. . .

VVA Color guard marching in the Canal Fest Parade 2006

Veterans Day, November 11, 2006; VVA Chapter 77 Museum, Tonawanda, NY

Sen. Mary Lou Rath announces registration drive for the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor

with Chapter 77 members who received the Purple Heart.

Left to Right: Bob Gritzke, US Army; Rick Topolski, US Army; Sen. Rath;

Patrick Welch, USMC and Ron Pilozzi, US Army

Dr. Ken Herrmann, was the guest speaker at the Chapter Meeting on Nov 16, 2006. Ken is an

Army Vietnam Veteran and an Associate Professor at SUNY Brockport where he runs the

Vietnam Studies Program. He also operates a Not for Profit named the

www.danangquangnamfund.org/

VVA Chapter 77 Color Guard presents colors on Veterans Day November 11, 2006.

Location is the Vietnam War Monument at the Buffalo Naval & Military Park, Buffalo, NY.

Chapter 77 President, Patrick W. Welch presented a course on the

Duties of Chapter and State Council Presidents at the VVA

National Leadership Conference in Tucson, AZ.