By Alan Erwin
You love your brothers and sisters in arms and if necessary you will give your life for both. In the long run that has been the single motivation of any soldier from the American Revolution to the War in Afghanistan.
It was my motivation in Vietnam. We had a nebulous political agenda in Washington a nation convinced we were doing no good and a consensus that we could not would not win. That makes for an unenthusiastic war.
Ive never been in an enthusiastic war so maybe Im not qualified to judge but I know when my fellow officer wrote his first letter to a mom about her son who died protecting us it would be a watershed for us all. There is no finer cause than his death. We did not know how much we loved him until he was gone.
I looked around at the kids surrounding me and I found a cause a political goal and my patriotic duty. If I could I would not let one more kid die in Southeast Asia. They deserved a future and my support for being there in that wet hot jungle because their country said it needed them. When called they came. And they were kids. Old men can easily declare wars because the kids fight them.
I spent the rest of my year ˜ hell I spent my life ˜ being quietly proud of them and me for being there. I felt ennobled confident and a little proud until I got home and found no one wanted to hear about noble causes. They didnt want to hear anything at all about Vietnam. Just that I was safe and home.
And so I shut up for almost 30 years. But no longer. Were going to have a monument on the state Capitol grounds honoring the Vietnam War and Im going to pester every Texan I can to get the money to build it. It will be called the Texas Capitol Vietnam War Monument.
Because of the support of Gov. Rick Perry Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst plus state Sen. Juan Hinojosa and State Rep. Wayne Smith both Vietnam veterans the Legislature this session passed a $500000 matching grant to be administered by the Texas Historical Commission.
The commission will match every dollar raised by private sources (you). Now we just have to get people to give us the first $500000. I think you will.
I just want to be there when its dedicated. I want to touch it and say the names of the guys who died. I want to honor those who went home silently and never got to tell anyone what they did and how they felt. I want to honor the nurse who died in a rocket attack in Danang while trying to save a guys life.
I want to have a hundred people saying every Texans name on that magnificent black wall on the Washington Mall.
I am now a proud Vietnam veteran. I was a citizen soldier and no great warrior but I did my best for my men and helping them get home safely was as honorable a cause as any soldier has ever been given.
Vietnam also taught Americans a lesson in tolerance.
I was in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport recently when soldiers returning from Iraq passed into the terminal. Unprompted people stood and applauded them and all of us cried together. Ive never been so proud of my country. They werent so nice to us when we came back from Vietnam but people later regretted it. After a generation or two Vietnam taught us not to confuse a war with a warrior. Good lesson.
I thank Arnold Garcia proud Vietnam veteran and editorial editor of the American-Statesman for asking for this piece and I hope all Texas newspapers magazines radio stations television stations cable systems and whatever category the Texas Tribune and the Quorum Report fill so well will pick it up pass it on and ask Texans to support this monument. However you fought the war ˜ for against or from Canada ˜ let them know that in the end we all came together as Americans of the Texas persuasion. We built a memorial to us all and in a hundred years people will know we served.
To give and learn more about the monument please visit our website at
www.buildthemonument.org. The monument to be located on the northeast side of the state Capitol grounds will show appreciation to the more than half-million Texans who served in the Vietnam War and act as a memorial for those 3415 Texans who made the supreme sacrifice in service to their country. The monument will be the first on the Capitol grounds to recognize the racial diversity of Texans who served. This creation will depict five soldiers including a Native American a Hispanic American an African American an Asian American and a Caucasian.
Please help us get this done. You will be thanking people who seldom had anyone thank them for what they did and gave.
