Vietnam vet walked long, tough road

Vietnam vet walked long, tough road


by KIM SCHMIDT
Kearney Hub

Published: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 1:47 PM CDT
RAVENNA - Don Macek didn't want to see the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall. He didn't think he could handle the emotion.

After having been wounded in the hand with a punji stick, regularly having to pick leeches off his body, and sitting within inches of a buddy who was shot in the back of the head by a sniper, he said the wall would just bring back too many bad memories of Vietnam.

"I'm afraid I'll break down," Macek said last week. "It was worse than people said. You grew up in a hell of a hurry."

The traveling wall has been in at the Great Platte River Road Archway for public viewing 24 hours a day since Friday. It can be seen until midnight tonight.

Macek was drafted into the U.S. Army in July 1969 - four days before his 19th birthday - where he was an infantryman operating an M60 machine gun. The gun weighed 28 pounds without ammunition.

With the gun loaded, the ammunition and a backpack in tow, Macek carried about 90 pounds on his back daily.
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Vietnam vet walked long, tough road