Fort Carson giving Vietnam vets their due

Fort Carson giving Vietnam vets their due

June 08, 2011 3:17 PM


Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/fort-119472-vietnam-carson.html#ixzz1Onett6Cw

TOM ROEDER
THE GAZETTE
Bill Walsh peered at black panes of steel Wednesday morning, looking for a friend from the 198th Infantry Brigade.

Other men nearby found their buddies and cried.

As Fort Carson marks 50 years since the first American troops headed to war in Vietnam, veterans gathered outside the post’s main gate to mourn at a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. Called “The Wall That Heals”, the memorial carries more than 58,000 names of troops killed or still missing from the war.

“I’m going to get upset, I always do,” said burly but graying Bruce Draper, a retired Army chief warrant officer who served as a helicopter crew chief in Vietnam during 1969.

For Draper and Walsh, the exhibit, open to the public from dawn to dusk through Friday, gives them a chance to pause and mourn youthful friendships ended by America’s most controversial war.

“I was in a straight leg infantry outfit,” Walsh said, recalling the heat, the land mines and the friendships formed under fire.

“I’m not a hero, these guys are,” Draper said gesturing to the 58,000 names.



Read more: Fort Carson giving Vietnam vets their due