Vietnam

“Born From War” author Patrick Naughton’s family has a long tradition of military service. Someone in his family fought in every conflict going back to the Revolutionary War.  Patrick himself began as an enlisted soldier, enrolled in ROTC and returned to the Army as an officer. We begin discussing my feelings about an emerging “Spartan class”. It seems that the burden of protecting our nation continues to fall upon a smaller segment of families whose service is intergenerational. While Patrick [...]

Father Ed McKenzie served in Vietnam as a crew member with the 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron. The combat search and rescue motto is “These Things We Do That Others May Live.” Like many Vietnam Veterans, Father McKenzie faced challenges upon returning to civilian life. When he sought some respite by seeking to join the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, his membership was declined. He was told that Vietnam was a “police action” and therefor he didn’t qualify [...]

Ed Mechenbier served in our United States Air Force for forty years, retiring at the rank of Major General. Nearly six of those forty years were spent as a POW in North Vietnam. His father told Ed he had better get a good scholarship or he wasn’t going to college. But he also bet him five dollars that if he applied to a service academy, he could probably get in. Ed had to borrow five dollars from his mother to [...]

Doug Hegdahl said he “probably had the most embarrassing capture of the Vietnam War”. Despite the odd circumstances that led him to become a Prisoner of War, he would turn out to be a rather unusual hero. Author Marc Leepson shares Hegdahl’s amazing story in his latest book “The Unlikely War Hero; A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resistance in the Hanoi Hilton.” Hegdahl grew up in a small South Dakota town and was described as very bright [...]

Robert S. McNamara was one of the more brilliant minds of his generation, serving as the President of Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. However, he will be best remembered as one of the most controversial figures of the Vietnam War while serving as the Secretary of Defense to both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. William Taubman and his brother Phil have written a book that brings significant new insights into the life and mind of Robert McNamara. It is [...]

Leonard “Lucky” Ekman wanted to serve our nation but the Dean at his military school discouraged him from applying to Air Force Academy because “It will take 50 years before that place amounts to anything.” Lucky graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1963 and in 2021 was named an AF Academy Distinguished Graduate. Bob Lodge and Roger Locher in their F4 Phantom He was Top Gun in his F-105 class at Nellis Air Force Base and was [...]

“Surviving Vietnam” is a collaboration between Vietnam Veteran Dennis Nickell and his wife Diana. After surviving fourteen months in the jungles of Vietnam, Dennis came home to face a second struggle for survival against the demons of drugs, alcohol and violence. Diana was with him almost the entire time. The American Psychiatric Association did not formally acknowledge PTSD as a diagnosable condition until 1980. Many Vietnam Veterans struggled to get answers and treatment. Dennis was briefly committed to the psyche [...]

National Vietnam Veterans Day is observed on March 29. March 29, 1973 was the day the  US Military Assistance Command – Vietnam stood down. This year has a bit of added significance; it is the 50th anniversary of the war. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs estimates there are still 7 million Americans who served on active duty during the Vietnam war still living. Commander Brian Wierzbiki, Chief of Public Engagement for the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration [...]