I walked the wall twice on Veterans Day and was amazed at the names and the items family and friends had left for their loved ones they had lost. I ask my wife of 32 years to leave me alone while I looked up a name of a guy I knew from McCook.

I looked up PFC Stanley Doak ‘68. His family babysat my brother and me. He had gone to Vietnam and died there September 29, 1969. Just before I was to leave for Nam, Stan’s sister came up and asked if it was true I was shipping out the next day. I answered and she hugged me and said, “Please come home.” I said I would do everything in my power to come back. I did in April 1972, after 19 months in Vietnam.

Now that you know the background, hopefully this will help you understand what happened. I looked up Stan’s name in the register. His name is on the wall panel W17 line 15. I started down the wall looking down low for the panel number. I got to W17 and looked up. I saw his name and it was like being hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. I fell to my knees and started to cry, which does not come easy to me. The reality of the whole “War” hit me at that moment. The lives lost and the lives that were changed forever. When I got to my feet, all I wanted to do was get away from there. When I headed up the sidewalk, the people parted a way so I could get out. I sat on a bench and tried to regain my composure. It was the most emotional thing I have ever felt.

I hope this letter helps other vets and their families to understand us a little better. This was a very hard war to live through and to explain. We were not welcomed home by America or thanked for what we did. So Welcome Home Vietnam Vets from one of their own.

Sp5 Gene Abbott 1969 rabbit@ecentral.com

P.S. I found four MHS Alumni that died in Vietnam and but could not find out how many others served in Nam. It is something McCook should know with all the things going on now.

Schaaf said it is important that Pearl Harbor is not forgotten. “The Web site is about these guys who did what they had to do. They did their duty,” he said. Approximately 2,336 servicemen lost their lives in the attack, with 12 ships and 164 aircraft destroyed. On the USS Arizona alone, 23 sets of brothers and a father and son were killed. The Web site includes a timeline of events, survivor narratives as well as President Roosevelt’s address to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941.

In addition to the Web site, Schaaf’s devotion to Pearl Harbor led him back to the Memorial numerous times, and after retiring in 2000, he worked a six – month stint for the National Park Service at the USS Arizona. Although the work was physically exhausting for him, he said he was able to connect with many of the remaining survivors of Pearl Harbor. “I met a lot of great old guys,” he said, “and they all had their eye witness stories,” many of which are included, with their approval, on his site. To this day, the USS Arizona leaks about a quart of oil a day. The ship was attacked shortly after it had been restocked with 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil. Legend has it, Schaaf said, that the Arizona is weeping black tears for her men, and when the last Arizona survivor dies, the fuel will run out. There are 39 survivors of the Arizona still alive.

“It was a day when, it has been said, that extraordinary things were done by ordinary men,” he said. “During the attack they were stunned, then angry, then they just did their jobs. They truly were the greatest generation.”

Staff Sgt. David McConnell ‘84 of McCook is currently deployed to Iraq and stationed at Logistical Support Area in Anaconda. He is also enrolled in two online courses, Expository Writing and Introduction to Sociology.

“This little ‘vacation’ has challenged my pursuit of a college degree, but I have enough down time here to still pursue it,” McConnell said. “I am hoping to complete my associate’s degree after the fall semester of this year. To earn my bachelor’s degree, I will be attempting to take a full load of classes any chance I get, because I retire from the Army in 2008. McConnell’s goal is to receive a degree in education and teach at the middle school level. Later, he would like to pursue his master’s degree and eventually teach at the college level.

McConnell credits his wife of nearly 20 years with helping him decide exactly what it was he wanted to do with his life after his time in the military. “Debbon (Fahnholz) ‘86 is the one who helped me figure out my career path. She knows my interest in history and suggested that I should become a teacher. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I returned, but she definitely pointed me in the right direction,” he said. He also gives his wife and two sons, Colt 11 and Evan 13, credit for keeping things running smoothly in his absence.

McConnell’s first tour was from November 2003 until November 2004. This tour started in July 2005 and he won’t be home until fall of 2006. When not deployed, David works as the unit trainer for Detachment 1 of the 1013th Quartermaster Co. based in McCook.

Life may be difficult for David McConnell and his family right now, but he knows his efforts will be rewarded when he completes his own education and embarks on a career of educating others.