‘ALWAYS REMEMBERED, NEVER FORGOTTEN’
Vietnam veterans honored with special ceremony downtown
Some military veterans didn’t begin to feel comfortable about sharing their history as Vietnam War combat soldiers until many years after the end of the conflict.
At a Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony held Monday at the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery in downtown Bakersfield, hundreds gathered to remember and honor those who served — and to make sure that American war fighters never again return home to face derision or silence or unfair blame for the policies of presidents and politicians.
“Why do we gather? Why do we come together?” Vietnam Veteran Fred Drew asked the crowd of nearly 300 that gathered outdoors Monday on Eye Street in downtown Bakersfield.
Drew served in Vietnam during the infamous Tet Offensive in 1968 and years later retired as a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.
“I lost six kids in my first nine months of command,” he remembered. “I wrote six letters home.”
“Why do we gather?” Drew asked again. “We weren’t able to gather when we came home.”
It doesn’t matter if you were a truck driver or a cook, a combat soldier or an officer.
“If you were in Vietnam, you are all Vietnam veterans,” he said.
There’s no question that the Vietnam War — the Vietnamese people call it the American War — was controversial. Many vets, including huge numbers who were drafted, say they didn’t feel that the nation welcomed them home once their service was complete.
Many Americans lost friends and brothers during that period of our nation’s history. More than 58,000 Americans died for a cause that will forever be debated, but right or wrong, those who answered the call deserve our respect and thanks.
In our workaday world, it’s easy to forget to honor those who served, and those who, as Abraham Lincoln said, “gave the last full measure of
devotion.”
But sometimes we honor in our own way.
At Monday’s event, a Bakersfield woman, Karen Galyan, told the story of how she tracked down a family in Arizona that had lost a Purple Heart medal that had been awarded to World War II veteran Clarence V. Hawksley.
“Five years ago, the Purple Heart was stolen out of a truck,” Galyan said Monday. “A simple post on Facebook” led to its return at Monday’s ceremony.
Galyan found a relative living in Bullhead City, Hawksley’s granddaughter, Laura Garrod.
The medal, which is awarded to soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who are wounded or killed in action, was returned to Garrod, who came from Arizona to attend Monday’s event.
“That Purple Heart is home,” Galyan said following Monday’s event. “The mission is complete.”
Galyan, a Goldstar mother who lost her own son, David Cole Lang in 2017, in a shooting after he suffered for years from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, started her own nonprofit veterans advocacy organization.
Named for her son, it’s called Cole’s Comrades.
As Monday’s commemoration continued, 11 Vietnam War Veterans began reading the names of the 176 Kern County residents who did not come home from the war. After each read 16 names, Gallery co-founder and Executive Director Jason Geis rang a large bell.
“Always remembered, never forgotten,” the veterans recited before each list of 16.
And they meant it.