Visit our site at http://whs.eanes.k12.tx.us/virtualvietnam/ to view presentations that our students completed for one of their English classes. Let us know what you think of this project, these presentations, or just drop a note to say hello.
If you would like more information about this project, let us know and someone will contact you. Thanks for visiting!
May 13th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
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26 Responses to “Honoring our Veterans”
I was a “medic” with Mike Company 3rd Batt. 1st Marines in Veitnam in 1967 & 68. I fall short of words that could tell you how thankful I am for the Honor and Respect you have shown this Marine and friend. You should be very proud. Thank you, “Doc” Peterson
June 15, 2007 @ 4:50 pmMay God bless you all for your brave contribution of honoring our Marines. Last August (2006)I met Donnie Ray Edwards’ brother and son. By the grace of God Ray’s son has a strong resemblance to his father. Seeing his son walk up to the podium to receive an award on behalf of his dad, reminded me of seeing Ray March 1, 1968.
June 19, 2007 @ 6:50 pmThankyou for honoring the vietnam veterans in such a unique way. I really enjoyed ALL the presentations.
July 4, 2007 @ 7:17 pmI became part of an e-mail group for ‘Mike’ Co., 3/1 Marines last year. This followed a joint effort to have one of my ‘66 high school classmates from Dallas inducted into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ‘In Memory’ program. I subsequently saw an e-mail from one of the other Marines about this website to honor Vietnam veterans by Westlake High School in Austin, TX. And, since I drive right by the area on my way home from work to Lago Vista each day, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to say THANK YOU, very, very much, for this wonderful tribute. The photo of Ray Edwards’ young son, saluting alongside his dad’s casket, is quite moving & reminded me of John Kennedy, Jr. following a dreadful day in Dallas, Nov. ‘63.
July 31, 2007 @ 10:02 pmThank you for your comments. Our students and teachers hoped that they could create some meaningful tribute and will really appreciate hearing from you.
August 3, 2007 @ 11:03 amPowerful. What a beautiful, real project.
August 5, 2007 @ 8:45 amI am delighted to see your noble work in cataloguing the hearts of Marines who served in Vietnam. SGT Zug, like myself, was assigned to “K” Company 3rd BN, 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division. He was killed in action at the “Rockpile” a few miles east of the famous Khe Sahn area. SGT Zug was an inspirational leader who loved life and shared his hopes and dreams…
Keep up this special work to capture the humanity of those who, like today, risked their lives to support the values of Americans.
February 8, 2008 @ 4:27 pmMy name is Rick Lewis. I am a Vietnam veteran and I worked directly under Sgt. Harold Milton Brown, the subject of Catherine’s veteran project. I was also with him when he was killed on 6/11/69. One second he was beside me, the next he was gone.
One of my Vietnam buddies Jim Giblin has contacted me and asked me to provide some information for this project. His exact words to me were, “Rick, you are getting your wish. Sarge will be remembered long after we are gone.”
In the fall of 2006, I started attempting to once again find some of my fellow soldiers from our fighting days of Vietnam. I found Jim in New Jersey first, then between us, were found another 15. On June 8, 2007, ten of us that were together in Vietnam, met for the first ever reunion of the 1/82 Field Artillery, “C” Battery, LZ LIZ near Duc Pho in the Quang Ngai Provence. It was the first time we had seen each other in 38 years. Yes, it was great. We all still keep in touch to this day, and I suspect we will for the rest of our lives. We plan to meet again in Washington D.C. in 2009. You know the “Wall” will be on our agenda!
After talking with Jim, I promptly sat down and spent a few hours putting together some information for Catherine, and sent it to her, including some pictures.
Ms. Stucky, I just wanted to personally let you know how much this has touched the lives of some old Vietnam Vets. I must confess that I loved my leader, my friend, my mentor, SSgt. Harold Milton Brown, aka “Sarge” and “Brownie”. He was truly my best friend in Vietnam. When he was killed, I was promoted to take his place. To me, that was an honor. I don’t know if I got it right, but I hope I did. I think Sarge would be happy with that.
The past year and half has been very rewarding for me personally. However, your school is about to do something that none of us thought would ever happen. Our beloved leader will be known to many in a time that others have been forgotten. You truly are paying a tribute to one of the finest men that ever lived.
I’m sure I have gone on too long, but the excitement of having a tribute paid to one of the greatest men that ever lived is long overdue. Sgt. Brown is a hero, and probably saved the lives of some of his comrades, including me. We are his biggest fans!
I want to thank the Westlake High School staff for allowing our children to truly learn of the past. To many ignore, or go around the Vietnam War. The students need to know that we, the soldiers, didn’t start this war; we just fought it and we are the ones that paid the price. Some of us, like Sgt. Brown, paid the ultimate price.
Thank you again for allowing me to express, on behalf of Sgt. Brown’s comrades and family, my sincere appreciation of what you are teaching our children today. If they forget the past, they likely will make the same mistakes in the future. If they learn from the past, they will have a brighter future.
With sincere appreciation,
Rick Lewis
February 10, 2008 @ 9:15 amYour school is doing an awesome job “Thank You”. There are 58000+ names on the wall and I had the honor to meet a few of them. Next year assign someone to Melville Albert Lurth (DOC) he was a Gym teacher from Mn and was a Medic on LZ Liz and was killed 3 days before Sgt Brown. He was also killed by a hand granade as he was attending to the wounded. I have a copy of the letter the Company commander wrote to his parents dated june 20 1968,
jim
February 10, 2008 @ 9:29 amI am struck by the professionalism, passion, and honor with this comprehensive digital memorial has been constructed. The beautiful coupling of history and technology with meaning is overwhelmingly inherent in this project. I am glad to see that the Vietnam Memorial Project has grown in publicity and in scope since I participated as a junior last year. It is indescribably worthwhile. Thank you, students, teachers, and veterans alike, for your time, talents, and comments. Veteran Rick Lewis’s entire comment resonated with me: in particular he expressed his gratitude that students are truly learning from the past. I am similarly impressed, and inspired with hope for our preservation of and lessons from profound memories and their heroes.
February 20, 2008 @ 3:20 pmWhat a beautiful tribute to my friend and classmate, Mike Ebert, he still touches the hearts of so many. Thank you Westlake High School for remembering the soldiers that lost their lives in this war.
May 21, 2008 @ 8:17 amTo every student and faculty member involved in the Virtual Vietnam Memorial project.
You should be extremely proud of your work and dedication to honor these heroes of the Vietnam War. Your project remembers those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
It is only natural that family members and friends will remember their loved ones, but to have a generation of young men and women like you honor these veterans is truly heartwarming.
The family members, friends and veterans that I tell about this project, are as thrilled and impressed as I am, knowing that their loved ones will not be forgotten.
I would like to express a special thank you to Laura for her work on Mike Ebert’s memorial. It is simply beautiful. Mike’s family and all of us that knew him are extremely appreciative and grateful for the way you honored and remembered him.
This project will touch the hearts of all those who see it.
Dave Hine
May 22, 2008 @ 2:33 pmThank you for this wonderful web site. I was a close friend of CAPT Gordon Chadwick, III. I am a sigma Chi Fraternity Brother, was in his wedding to Carol Ainsley, and named one of my sons after him (James Chadwick Cameron, who is now 38 years old). I also served a year in Vietnam.
I would like the opportunity to do two things: 1) contact all the people who contributed to his background information – I know many of them but have lost contact, and 2) provide additional information for the web site (or for anyone who would like to correspond). Could you please provide me with all the email addresses your have for Gordon and his friends and family? Mine is jcameron@transtechmanagement.com.
Thanks again. JOHN
June 7, 2008 @ 11:29 pmWhat a beautiful tribute to my West Point roommate, David Nidever. Our class (1958) lost thirteen classmates in Viet Nam. Dave was the last. Each year in May as many of our class as can be there hold a brief memorial service at the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, DC, to honor one of the thirteen. May 2007 happened to be the year we honored Dave, and I had the privelege of helping to lead that service. My last visit with Dave was when he was teaching math at West Point. I couldn’t believe it when we got the news of his untimely death.
I send my sincere thanks to the English teachers and the students who participated in this project. You have done a great job, not only in honoring each of the individuals you memorialized, but in honoring this great country which they all served.
Bob Shellenberger
June 9, 2008 @ 8:40 amUSMA 1958
Viet Nam Vet, 1968-69
As a close friend of Captain Michael Robert Nawrosky,USMA 1964 thank you for honoring these fallen warriors of the Vietnam War.Even though you have listed many individuals there were over 58,000 men who will never come back after giving the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in the name of liberty and freedom. Freedom it is said is not free. It has a price.
I think you hit all the benchmarks of Mikes life as a student at Dumont HS in New Jersey, and West Point. Mike is buried at USMA. He died on July 6, 1968.Only 27 years of life and he gave it because it was his duty. I was introduced to Mike while he was an aide de camp to the Commandante of Cadets. He enjoyed his job, and being back at West Point. There he earned his Captains bars. That in itself is a giant honor. The words, Honor, Duty and Country, were his personal credo. He was a very warm, sincere,and highly intelligent man with a grin and laugh that was irresistable.Mike was remarkable. Forty years later, he is missed by his friends, his classmates at West Point and by me.Mike’s family is all deceased now, and if the youth of this country does not remember who will? A loving and sincere heart with a wonderful life in his future. No, not he, nor the other 58,000 men and women should ever be forgotten. Thanks for the tribute to Captain Nawrosky and them.
The class project was done very well and I think you should be very proud. I am proud to know we have such talent in our country.
July 6, 2008 @ 6:08 pmGod Bless America.
Delta Troop 2/17 Cavalry 101st Airborne Vietnam
Posted to our website:
Troopers, PLEASE, visit their website, sign their Guestbook. What these Students are doing is the greatest Honor we could wish for our Fallen Heroes.
Let them know we have been there and that what they are doing is special.
Got this letter from Abby, this afternoon.
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 4:03 PM, ABBY KLEARMAN wrote:
Dear Charlie,
Thank you so much for contacting me, and for posting my cause on your
website. I greatly appreciate it. If you are interested my finished
media presentation along with others will be posted on
whs.eanes.k12.tx.us/virtualvietnam/. Thanks again!
Sincerely,
Abby Klearman
I responded to her with this email:
Abby,
After receiving your email from John Imsdahl last night, I took the liberty to look up your school and project on the Internet and had already found your school project link. When I posted your letter to our website I also posted the link to the school project website for our members to visit.
I’m sure it will be visited many times by members of our group and I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of people who sign the Guestbook will greatly increase from the, 17, responses I saw listed. What you and your classmates are doing to preserve the memory of our Fallen Heroes goes beyond anything we could have imagined.
Our group has a password protected site but we also have two open sites you might want to pass on to your teachers and classmates.
http://www.dirtydelta.com/ is the main website and is always open to the public.
Two sub sites of that you might like to visit are:
http://www.dirtydelta.com/TroopKIA.htm which lists the members of our unit, Delta Troop 2/17th Cavalry 101st Airborne Division. The first 36 of those named on this list are the men who, Gave Their All, and are linked to the Vietnam Virtual Wall website by clicking their last name. Two names are not linked to and are not on the Wall but mean just as much to us. They were North Vietnam Army soldiers who were either captured or surrendered and became Scouts with our Unit through a program called, Chu Hoi, http://www.psywarrior.com/viet.html . They were killed in action along side our Brothers.
http://www.dirtydelta.com/troopers/index.php which lists the names of our Brothers we’ve lost since Vietnam and is updated as time passes. There, if you click the names, you will be taken to photos and postings to Honor these Fallen Heroes. This is our own, Virtual Wall, created to Honor our Brothers passing since Vietnam.
One site you might like to see and share which contains many photos from our reunions we’ve held since 2003. That was the first year anyone was able to make contact with each other from our days in Vietnam. It’s a long story how that all came about and the number of members that have been found since then has grown and is still growing. Those same faces you see on the above first website have aged greatly but still hold the same respect, love and devotion to each other from our days of service to our country in a land far from ours.
picasaweb.google.com/dirtydelta There are only two reunions, 2005 and 2007 photos there, but many, many photos.
This last link is a video taken at the Vietnam Wall in Washington in 2007 from our last reunion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pnwmQUZGJM
Working for the ITS of a county school district here in Georgia, I know you may not be able to see those websites from school computers. I’m sure, like students here in Georgia, you carry cell phones or laptops with internet access and will be able to view them or on your home computers. If your teachers ask the right people, they might be able to get them unblocked for the school computers.
Please, tell your Teachers and Classmates, how much we appreciate the time and effort you have taken to Honor Our Fallen Heroes from Vietnam. They are not just names on a wall, They Are Our Heroes.
I look forward to seeing your work on the website.
If you need any information or assistance that we might be of help, Please email anyone you see on the mailing list this is being sent to. I’m sure you will get a quick response.
Thank You,
February 13, 2009 @ 2:39 pmCharlie Brown
I am so glad that the younger generation is learning about what we did in Vietnam. I only hope they understand that Freedom is NOT free, and what their responsibility to preserve freedom involves.
February 15, 2009 @ 6:14 pmthank you for your patriotism, and for showing that
you care about the history of this great country,the
the vietnam war and the era of the time were a very
controversial time in american history, im proud to
say im a vietnam vet, i survived the war, and came home
to okla. to a supporting community. thanks for honoring
the fallen, whose lives were cut short.
Sincerely
February 21, 2009 @ 3:13 pmTerry l Garrett viet nam 1970-71
Thank you. When I received the email to participate to honor my father, Franklin D. Bynum, Capt, USMC, I checked out the website and watched some of the memorials that the students prepared. I was moved to tears, again.
I was very young when my father was killed in 1968 and am moved and heartened that today’s young people have not forgotten this awful war.
American’s must constantly be reminded that freedom isn’t free. Thank you so much.
Julie Bynum (Franklin D. Bynum, USMC, KIA 6-27-1967)
March 14, 2009 @ 2:51 pmThank you.
I am a Woman Marine who served from 1973-1976.
diane
March 14, 2009 @ 5:55 pmThank you for your tribute to Brian O’Callaghan. Brian and I were in the same squad at ROTC camp and were commissioned on the same day. I stayed with his family on my way to Infantry Officer Basic at Ft. Benning. We always joked that he would be safe in a tank, while I would be the one to “get it.” In 2000, I was asked to give the Memorial Day speech in my home town, and I dedicated it to Brian. He was truly a great guy, who richly deserved to grow old and watch his family grow up.
May 11, 2009 @ 12:44 pmJulie Bynum is my cousin. I remember Uncle Frank for his loud voice and that he was really incredibly tall. Also, he didn’t like for destructive kids to play on/in his little red sportscar. (Actually the kid involved was my brother Mark, so you couldn,t blame him.) The funeral was devastating to me. I’ll never forget the sounds of the guns or the tears on my Grandfather’s face. It was a time that stood out…it was a sunny hot day filled with sadness and grief. I cannot possibly imagine how Julie felt…I cannot put myself at 6 yrs old..in her shoes.
May 23, 2009 @ 1:52 pmNatalie
Jim Giblin: I have the privilege of working with the students at Westlake High School to complete this project. I’m very sorry that your friend, Melville Albert Lurth, was not included in this year’s names. I will do what I can to see that he is included in the next round of tributes which should begin in January, 2010. Thank you for stopping by our site.
August 4, 2009 @ 1:16 pmJust a quick note to say thanks for remembering my brother, Philip Boyd Jones. Your presentation was moving. Thanks too, for remembering all those who served. My brother is at peace… Many of our vets are still struggling. Keep them in your hearts and prayers.
September 17, 2009 @ 7:56 amTest
October 30, 2009 @ 3:18 pmSorry about the test, but two previous comments were dumped for want of an email address and there was not a field labeled for the address.
I wanted to thank you for honoring the fallen from our unpopular war. I was with the 2nd of the 3rd Battalion, 199th Light Infantry Brigade in ‘69-’70. I did not find any of the KIA from my platoon on your site, nor that of my best friend killed on Oct. 23, 1969 (has it been 40 years already?!!), but I looked at a couple of the tributes and found them moving and well done. Thank you for honoring our fallen friends and, through them, those of us who survived. Well done!
October 30, 2009 @ 3:23 pm