Photo By Master Sgt. Teddy Wade | U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Daniel G. Mitchell, Army Materiel Command Deputy Chief of Staff...... read more read more
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Honoring and respecting the legacy of Vietnam veterans comes naturally for a generation of service members like Maj. Gen. Daniel Mitchell, who grew up in their shadow.
Recalling the platoon sergeants and non-commissioned officers of his early years as an Army ordnance officer, Mitchell told a gathering of Vietnam veterans and their families on April 7 that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who committed themselves, first, to defending the nation during a troubling time and, second, to building the next generation of service members who are today’s senior leaders.
“When we came into the military, who was teaching us? Our mentors were the platoon sergeants and senior leaders who taught us what they learned in Vietnam. Those were the service members we revered and learned our craft from,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell, the Army Materiel Command’s deputy chief of staff for Logistics and Operations, shared his feelings about those service members as the keynote speaker for the seventh annual Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans ceremony. The event, which was scheduled to commence at the Veterans Memorial in downtown Huntsville, was moved to the Huntsville High School auditorium due to unseasonable cold and wind.
Even so, the ceremony attracted about 150 veterans and their family members who continue the tradition of recognizing the March 29 anniversary date as the end of the Vietnam War. Locally, that tradition began in 2012 when Alabama’s Vietnam Veterans of America Huntsville Chapter 1067 organized an anniversary observance.
On May 25, 2012, a presidential proclamation was signed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War with events throughout the nation occurring from Memorial Day 2012 until Veterans Day 2025. The Department of Defense supports the events through its Vietnam War Commemoration program.
Referring to the Vietnam veterans in the audience as the ceremony’s guests of honor, Mitchell said he had a great sense of pride to be part of their ceremony. He talked about one of Huntsville’s native sons – Spc. Stanley Reed Lewter – who, at the age of 70, may very well have been sitting amongst the veterans in the audience if he had not been killed at the age of 20 by enemy fire in Vietnam.
Lewter was a crew chief with the 118th Assault Helicopter Co., 1st Aviation Brigade. He received the Silver Star posthumously for his bravery on March 17, 1968, when his UH-1D Huey gunship came under heavy enemy fire as it was leading a formation of helicopters to a landing zone.
Lewter delivered “a heavy and very accurate volume of fire to cover the helicopter’s descent,” Mitchell said.
But the enemy was also returning heavy fire, and a Vietnamese soldier on Lewter’s aircraft was wounded. Lewter pulled the wounded man into his compartment and continued defensive firing on the enemy with one hand while also attempting to stop the soldier’s bleeding. As the aircraft touched down at the landing zone, Lewter was hit by enemy fire and
knocked away from his weapon.
“He crawled back to his gun and continued laying down heavy fire. The mission was a success and he saved many lives, but his was not one of them,” Mitchell said.
“He is just one Soldier. There were 2.7 million men and women who served in the Vietnam War. Today, we salute the 58,000 who didn’t come home. We salute the 126,000 Alabamians who served and didn’t get the respect they deserved. This annual ceremony reminds us all of the men and women who served with honor, and who will forever receive respect in this great country.”
More than 58,000 service members were killed in the Vietnam War, and 1,208 of those were from Alabama.
Three Vietnam veterans were honored with awards from Chapter 1067, which hosted the ceremony. They were: Sgt. Larry Wyenandt, recipient of the Col. Leo Thorsness Guardian of Freedom Award; Staff Sgt. John Mays, recipient of the Tech Sgt. E.A. Phillips Humanitarian Award and Sgt. Maj. Robert Langford, recipient of the Command Sgt. Maj. Colin Hargrove Service to Veterans Award.
The ceremony’s theme was “Honor, Support … Heal.” It included patriotic music by the Army Materiel Command Band’s Arsenal Brass, a resolution presented by State Rep. Howard Sanderford and a message from Larry Brom, the assistant director of Plans and Operations for the Vietnam War Commemoration.
“When you returned home, there were no parades, no recognitions for your honorable service,” Brom said. “Now, we are getting it right. We have over 11,000 commemorative partners – sports teams, museums, military installations, veterans groups – that are conducting events in all states.”
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2018 15:29 |
| Story ID: | 272341 |
| Location: | HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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