Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Moving wall
Replica memorial honors casualties of Vietnam War.
Editor’s note: The Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., stands in Fayetteville today through Monday on the lawn of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks. E.S. Lawbaugh of Fayetteville served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War and served with many of the soldiers listed on the wall. He recently remembered three, whose service has been highly honored.
He wrote the following in tribute to his brothers in arms. The piece has been edited for style considerations.
More than 58,000 names appear on the Vietnam Wall. I served with many of these casualties listed. All three were recognized with medals most people on that wall don’t have. Three of these men need their stories told.
LELAND ZAHN
Staff Sgt. Leland Dale Zahn is on the wall at Panel 17E, Line 109. He was a unique U.S. Marine, in that he served in the Korean War, was discharged and returned to Harris, Iowa, to farm, then 10 years later, he volunteered to return to active duty to fight in Vietnam.
In late July 1965, the then Sgt. Zahn reported to Hill 37, west of Danang, Vietnam, to serve as my radio chief. During August 1965, 2nd Battalion, 12 Marines, ran short of artillery forward observers. Sgt. Zahn, Staff Sgt. Jesmund, Gunnery Sgt. Clark and I were trained to call fire missions. Capt. Dick Pegler gave us one day of classroom training and one day of field training of firing missions. Initially, the four of us took turns as forward observers at a position atop the Marble Mountains, south of Danang. Spending time on the mountaintop, Sgt. Zahn and I became friends and exchanged stories about our lives growing up in a small town. In late 1965, my tour in Vietnam was over, and I returned to the States for duty in Norfolk, Va. We exchanged a couple of letters, and Zahn extended his tour in Vietnam. He was killed in action while serving with the 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines, on April 5, 1967. Leland Zahn was 38 years old. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal, the military’s third highest personal decoration, for heroism. His other awards included the Bronze Star Medal with a V (for valor) and the Purple Heart.
DON COOK
Donald Gilbert Cook of Brooklyn, N.Y., is on the wall at Panel 01E, Line 080. Don and I were in Marine Basic class 2-57 and later attended the Basic Communications officers school together. In November 1964, Capt. Don Cook, USMC, was selected to go
to Vietnam for a 30-day tour as an adviser and observer with the Vietnamese marines. On the last Sunday before he left for Vietnam, he, Capt. Jack Pozza, also of B class 2-57, and I attended Mass together and then spent the afternoon swimming at Ishkiwa Beach on Okinawa. That was to be the
last time Jack and I would ever see Don Cook.
Donald Cook was captured by the enemy on Dec. 31, 1964. He was shot in the knee at the Battle of Bihn Gia. He was the first
Marine captured in Vietnam. The Viet Cong held Cook in a series of jungle POW camps. Don Cook led 10 fellow POWs in captivity for three years. Throughout that period, he looked out for their health and welfare, while complying with the spirit and intent of the Code of Conduct. He died in a forced march to a new POW camp on Dec. 8, 1967. Until he was declared dead in February 1980, Don continued to be carried on the promotion rolls and was promoted to the rank of colonel. His remains were never recovered. He was survived by his wife and four children, as well as by seven of his former POW comrades. Donald Cook was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. He was the first and only Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in captivity.
Don Cook’s Medal of Honor citation reads:
“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while interned as a Prisoner of War by the Viet Cong of the Republic of Vietnam during the period 31 December 1964 to 8 December 1967. Despite the fact that by so doing he would bring about harsher treatment for himself, Colonel (then captain) Cook established himself as senior officer, even though in actuality he was not. Repeatedly assuming more than his share of harsh treatment, Colonel Cook willingly and unselfishly put the interests of his comrades before that of his own well-being, and, eventually, his life. Giving more needy men his medicine and drug allowance while constantly nursing them, he risked infection from contagious diseases while in a rapidly deteriorating state of health. This unselfish and exemplary conduct, coupled with his refusal to stray even the slightest from the Code of Conduct, earned him the deepest respect from not only his fellow prisoners, but his captors as well. Rather than negotiate for his own release or better treatment, he steadfastly frustrated attempts by the Viet Cong to break his indomitable spirit and passed this same resolve on to the men whose well-being he so closely associated with
himself. Knowing his refusals would prevent his release prior to the end of the war, and also knowing his chances for prolonged survival would be small in the event of continued refusal, he chose nevertheless to adhere to the Code of Conduct far above that which could be expected. His personal valor and exceptional spirit of loyalty in the face of almost certain death reflected the highest credit upon Colonel Cook, the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.”
JACK DOWD
Lt. Col. John Aloysius Dowd of Elizabeth, N.J., is on the wall at Panel 19w, Line 030. He was killed in action on Aug. 13, 1969, while serving as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
Jack Dowd and I first met when we served in the personnel department at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, in Arlington, Va., in 1968. We traveled together to Fort Lee, N.J., to study Army military training and educational programs. The next year, both of us were in Vietnam. I visited Lt. Col. Dowd in An Hoa in May 1969, shortly after his battalion had fought in Operation Oklahoma Hills.
On the 12th of August, 1969, Jack Dowd and I were only a few miles distant from each other when we each became a casualty. That morning, I had taken command of a company, and on the way to see one of my platoons on Hill 22, I was wounded in action. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Dowd’s battalion was bombarded by enemy rockets and mortars, commencing an intense battle. Around noon the next day, Lt. Col. Dowd lost his life while advancing to the site of the heaviest fighting. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second-highest award for heroism.
E.S. LAWBAUGH
Emanuel Sylvester “Vess” Lawbaugh served in
the Marines for 20 years, retiring in 1981, reads a biography provided by Lawbaugh.
He enrolled in the Marine Corps Reserve while in college, rising to the rank of sergeant with the Denverbased 155 Gun Battalion. After college he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He spent two years on active duty.
Lawbaugh returned to active duty for the Vietnam War. “I was a Marine, and I had never defended my country,” he said.
He served two tours in Vietnam, with the 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines, in 1965, and with the 5th and 7th Communications Battalions in 1969 to 1970.
During his Marine career, Lawbaugh commanded five platoons, two companies and the communications squadron of the 1st Marine Air Wing. His last tour in the Marine Corps was served as Marine Corps director at ECAC, a joint command, in Annapolis, Md., the biography records.
His wife Sonja served in the United Service Organization (USO).
After retiring from the military, Lawbaugh — who was born and raised in St. Mary, Mo. — earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas. He worked in administration at universities in South Dakota and Iowa. Then he specialized in criminal law as a defense counsel and city prosecutor in Westville, Okla.
Lawbaugh, 82, currently serves as a national judge advocate for the Military Order of the Purple Heart. He joined the order in 2005 and served six years as the commander of Chapter 460,
four years as department commander and was named Region V patriot of the year in 2010.
Lawbaugh was the first in his family to serve in the military, except for an ancestor’s stint during the Revolutionary War. That early patriot stood watch, ready to alert the Continental Army by lighting fires if the British came up the Potomac River. They did not. “He spent the war waiting, and nobody ever came,” Lawbaugh said. “He sat and watched. None of us choose what is going to happen.”
Two of his grandsons currently serve in active duty with the Marine Corps, Lawbaugh said. Malachi Bucao is a gunnery sergeant at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and served at least seven tours overseas. Benjamin Bucao should be back in the States within a few days after service as a communications sergeant in Iraq. He also has served in Bulgaria and Norway in the past year.
On April 29, 2007, another grandson, Brain Botello, 19, was killed in action in Iraq. He was a scout with the U.S. Army 2nd Cavalry.
Lawbaugh also was injured in Vietnam, but he survived to honor his friends.
On Aug. 12, 1969, at 12:45 p.m. on Hill 22, Lawbaugh took a hit. “I know what time it was because I had just looked at my watch,” Lawbaugh said, telling his tale from his Fayetteville living room. “The first question I asked when I was conscious again was ‘What time is it?’ They told me ‘1300,’ so I knew I’d been out for 15 minutes. Then, I was worried about the others. It was the first day I had the company.”
A box mine with 40 pounds of TNT was detonated as the Jeep in which he was riding hit it. Then the company commander, platoon commander, also in the vehicle, and Lawbaugh were strafed with fire from an AK47.
“What the AK47 did was minor to what had already happened,” he said. The Jeep was 200 yards from the platoon.
Lawbaugh said he remained in the field for four hours before he was taken to a hospital.
He lost a knee cap and continues to exercise his knee every day. He suffered a burst eardrum, burns on his face, teeth knocked loose, a broken jaw and was blind in the left eye for nine days and the right eye for 30 days.
After four months of recovery in Guam, he returned
to Vietnam and was ordered to stay in base camp, but he returned to combat when the commanding officer was sent home on an emergency leave and the executive officer had an attack of appendicitis. “So I was acting battalion commander, and there was no one to tell me I couldn’t,” he said.
Lawbaugh remembers his friends every day, he said. In addition to these three men, he knows many others listed on the wall.
“When I say my prayers each night, I pray for Leland Zahn,” Lawbaugh said. “For Leland Zahn and the other casualties of Vietnam.
“Leland Zahn stands out to me because we were close friends, and he was admired as a Marine. But I don’t forget the other causalities of the Vietnam War.”