Ride Report for Ride Captain Matt Charlier AKA “Matter

The Warriors’ Watch Riders were asked to escort a group a South Vietnamese Vietnam Veterans to a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The place where this ceremony was held was at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial which honors the 2956 Illinois servicemen who died or are still missing from the War that preceded the fall. “To those who died, honor and eternal rest; to those still in bondage, remembrance and hope; to those who returned, gratitude and peace.”

I am often in the presence of Vietnam Veterans. Meaning, American warriors who were sent thousands of miles from home to fight for South Vietnam’s shot at freedom and democracy. We cannot praise or honor their service and sacrifice enough. Much less often am I able to meet and speak with South Vietnamese warriors and their families who escaped from the yoke of Communism that fell upon their country when our American political system abandoned them.

Deaths Caused by North Vietnamese Communist Power Consolidation

An estimated 95,000 civilians died in the communist re-education camps, another 500,000 were involved in forced labor projects, which killed 48,000 civilians. Another 100,000 were executed. Finally, 400,000 boat people died while trying to flee Vietnam. This is 643,000 killed during the consolidation of communist rule. This consolidation ended around 1984, although boat people deaths occurred through 1988. A similar high death toll occurred in North Vietnam during 1950s when the Communists consolidated power in that geographic region. {much of this info copied from wikipedia I seem to recall}

Notice I did not say our military abandoned or failed them. As President Nixon was quoted as saying years after his presidency, “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then. It is misremembered now.”

Sadly, that is still true today. Militarily, we had triumphed in our efforts with the South Vietnamese against the communist north. The Paris Peace Accords put an official end to the fighting and there was an “understanding” that Nixon and America would respond to further aggression by the greatly diminished North Vietnam with more B52s. Then came the Case-Church Amendment on the heals of Watergate which effectively cleared the way for North Vietnam (with help from China and Russia) to wage yet another invasion of the South, this time without fear of U. S. bombing.

They did invade, the US did nothing but scold… By 11AM on April 30, 1975, the red and blue Viet Cong flag was flying from the presidential palace in Saigon.

Fast forward 35 years. Those who fought alongside the US who could not immediately flee spent many of those 35 years in prisons or “re-education” camps
(think concentration camps). If only there was such a way to skip all the unimaginable pain and suffering and hardships that were stoically endured.

And what did these proud people do the moment they could? They escaped to America for that chance to live out the remainder of their lives in a place where freedom and democracy still reign. They did this for their children. It was not an easy struggle either, but they persevered. One of those children grew up to be a Sergeant in the United States Army who served 2 tours in harm’s way for her new adopted country.

We were asked to properly welcome home Sgt. Nguyen, along with a belated thanks and welcome for Kiet Vo, Commander of the Vietnamese Vietnam Veterans Association.

Sergeant Nguyen returned from Iraq on 4/16/10
– Joined the U. S. Military at the age of 17
– Was deployed to Iraq 2 times
– Was granted 9 medals and 4 awards
– Her father is a Major who commanded a Vietnamese Ranger Battalion. He was put in the concentration camp for 13 years Our small tokens of appreciation seemed ever so insignificant knowing what these veterans had been through.

I think of this mission often to this day.. Pretty much every time I hear the word Vietnam…

Thank you Sgt. Nguyen and Welcome Home Kiet Vo.

More pictures of this mission can be found here – http://warriorswatch.shutterfly.com/15243

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