https://www.wincalendar.com/Vietnam-War-Veterans-Day

Vietnam War Veterans Day History

Vietnam War Veterans Day seeks to thank and honor United States Vietnam veterans and their families. This day acknowledges their service and sacrifices. It also recognizes those men and women who were denied a proper welcome when they returned home decades ago. According to uswardogs.org, more than 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam.

The first Vietnam Veterans Day was in 1974, a year after the last troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act, signed into law in 2017, designates every March 29th as Vietnam War Veterans Day.

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                                         ALL CAME RUNNING

Who can forget the opening scene of MASH on TV?  Alright - to the one who has never seen the show – a quick explanation.

Radar (the company clerk) SCREAMS, before anyone else heard them,  “CHOPPERS”!!!  Other than those in the middle of a surgery, everything stops – for less than a second - and then ALL run to the chopper pad.  ALL means ALL!   The Doctors, Nurses, Medical Staff and, yes, the Colonel.

Then CWO2 Pilot Howard and I were on a “last light” mission.  At dusk – near dark – we flew the length of the perimeter defense wire of the 25th Infantry Division’s Cu Chi base camp.  This was the time of day when Charlie would start to come out of the tunnels for their night operations.  Our role was to identify the specific tunnel openings for our perimeter guards.  There were many tunnel openings – some were even inside the wire – remember, Charlie was here first.  NOTE:  Mr. Howard went on to serve three tours during which he received multiple Distinguished Flying Crosses and Purple Hearts.  Upon retiring, he worked at Brooke Army Hospital identifying pieces of metal, which at one time were whole combat helicopters, recovered from a location of a missing pilot and crew.  This effort moved many from the MIA list to the KIA list – of which the families were grateful.  An ironic “job well done!” reward.  He did this for years.  He knew some of the downed pilots. He finally had to stop.

Through the chopper’s headphones, Mr. Howard hollered “Charlie at 9 o’clock”!  I saw an image go into a tunnel and fired a grenade at the opening.  Sidenote: I might add at this point that I was well acquainted with the Army’s M79 Grenade Launcher. This was a rifle-like gun with a single round (smooth grenade) in a 1 ½ inch barrel.   One evening, at the start of being the night perimeter sector duty officer, a soldier asked if I could hit a dead tree outside of the wire with the M79.  I fired a round up into the air, reloaded and then fired a 2nd round directly at the tree – both hit the tree at almost exactly the same time with just enough difference to know there were two.  BOOMBOOM.  The word got around.

I looked toward 9 o’clock and fired toward the hole.  As the tunnel’s entrances were booby-trapped, the round exploded and caused a secondary explosion – it looked like my “demo”.

The chopper rocked – I looked at Mr. Howard and his face was all blood coming from his forehead – I kept wiping the blood so he could see – He radioed to clear air traffic and we headed to the 12th Evacuation Hospital pad at Cu Chi.   As we approached, I saw them ALL running as fast as they could - to us.  The MASH show was on.  Mr. Howard, thinking we had landed, shut down the chopper about 6 feet off the ground – hard landing!

The medical team yanked us both from the chopper.  On the litter, they were cutting away my jungle fatigues as, by now, I was covered in blood.  It turned out, I was not hit by the shrapnel.  The blood was all Mr. Howard’s.  This was Mr. Howard’s first Purple Heart.  The chopper sustained many, many tears and holes – still don’t know why I didn’t.

I, also, don’t know how Charlie, or anyone else in that tunnel, could have survived that double blast.  I have thought about that every day since. To be clear, the “Tunnels of Cu Chi” were there for a reason – to hide during the day, come out at night and kill the French and now the Americans.   At that moment, I was there to stop that.

It was a War – For All of us!  

                 DONALD H. NAU
U S Army – Armor/Infantry Officer 1967-1974

HQ Co, 3rd Combat Brigade, 25th Infantry Division

Dates in Vietnam:  Aug 1969 to Aug 1970

The above story is printed in the book "I'm Ready To Talk", Deeds Publishing-Athens, GA