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FEature article
By Marc Leepson
It’s not every day that the governor
of a state officially proclaims Vietnam Veterans of America
Week. But that’s
what happened in July when Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
declared the week of July 10-16 VVA Week in honor of our
28 years of service to the nation’s Vietnam-era veterans
and the fact that VVA held its biennial National Leadership
Conference in the Oro Valley section of Tucson July 12-15.
The
director of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services,
Patrick F. Chorpenning, presented the official proclamation
to VVA National President John Rowan at the Leadership
Conference’s solemn yet celebratory opening ceremonies
on Wednesday morning, July 12, at the Hilton El Conquistador
Hotel. Chorpenning, a disabled Vietnam veteran who served
with the 1st Marine Division, represented the governor
at the ceremonies, which also featured welcoming remarks
from Tucson’s Vice Mayor Steve Leal, a VVA member;
Paul Loomis, the mayor of Oro Valley; and VVA Arizona State
Council President Bill Messer.
County music singer/songwriter
Paulette Carlson opened the ceremonies with rousing renditions
of two songs from her current CD, including “Thank
You Vets,” which
she wrote in tribute to her brother Gary, who served in
the Vietnam War and who died in 2005 of Agent Orange-related
liver cancer, and other Vietnam veterans she has known.
The founder and lead singer of the acclaimed country music
band Highway 101 also performed a stirring a capella rendition
of the National Anthem following the posting of the colors
by Arizona Chapters 106 from Tucson, 432 of Phoenix, and
835 from Yuma, along with Phoenix Post 48 of the Scottish
American Military Society, which presented the POW/MIA
flag.
After greetings from VVA President John Rowan and
AVVA President Mary Miller, Medal of Honor recipient Paul “Buddy” Bucha
electrified the crowd with a passionate call-to-action.
Bucha, a former 101st Airborne Division company commander
who also gave the Keynote at the 2003 National Convention
in St. Louis, brought cheers from the crowd as he called
on VVA leaders to go back to their communities across the
nation and “rekindle the flame of Vietnam veterans’ activism” in “the
name of those who died in Vietnam.”
Vietnam veterans “are
the conscience of this country,” Bucha
said. “We can change the world. We are in a position
of leadership and we have the confidence to say, ‘Follow
Me.’” Bucha exhorted VVA members to live up
to VVA’s founding principle, “Never again will
one generation of Americans abandon another.”
The
opening ceremonies over, conference attendees proceeded
to take in three and a half days of seminars that dealt
with a wide range of issues of importance to VVA leaders,
as well as several special events. The weather was hot
outside—the high temperatures ranged from 105 to
110. But inside the air-conditioned hotel, VVA members
took in seminars with topics that included helping homeless
veterans; duties of presidents of VVA Chapters, State Councils
and Boards of Directors; working with the media; a Chapter
newsletter and State Council newspaper workshop; PTSD workshops;
membership strategies; legislative advocacy; minority and
women veterans’ issues; funding State Council Veterans
Service programs; and a presentation by three veterans
of the former Soviet Union military who served as advisers
to the North Vietnamese and who are cooperating with VVA
to account for Americans listed as missing in action in
Vietnam.
The special events included a State Council Presidents’ Luncheon
on Wednesday featuring remarks by former Alaska Sen. Mike
Gravel, a 2008 presidential hopeful. In the evening, a
Caribbean-themed (Hawaiian shirts suggested) poolside party
was hosted by the Arizona State Council. On Thursday afternoon,
many conference attendees took in special showings of The
War Tapes, an award-winning documentary film that looks
at the Iraq War through the eyes of American fightingmen
on the ground, and Commitment & Sacrifice, which follows
the experiences of troops from B Company, 5th of the 7th
Cavalry, during both the Vietnam War and Iraq War. Norman
Lloyd, a former CBS cameraman who produced the film, was
on hand to answer questions at the screening, as was War
Tapes executive producer Chuck Lacy.
The Friday Awards Luncheon
included VVA’s first Minority
Affairs Committee Diversity Award, which went to retired
Army Gen. Ezell Ware for his commitment to VVA and to the
minority affairs community, and the VVA Community Service
Award, presented to U-Haul International for its longstanding
charitable work on behalf of the nation’s veterans.
The VVA awards followed.
The honorees were: Member of the
Year: John Miterko, Chapter 915, Austin, Texas; Chapter
of the Year: Chapter 154, Macomb County, Michigan; AVVA
Member of the Year: Diane Kuhn; Incarcerated Member of
the Year: Thelbert M. Lawson, Jr., Chapter 745, Monroe,
Washington; Chapter Newsletter of the Year: Between the
Lines, Chapter 20, Rochester, New York; State Council Newspaper
of the Year: Interchange, New York State Council.
The Awards
Luncheon Keynote Speaker, Al Giordano, the National Service
Director and acting Chief Operating Officer for the Wounded
Warrior Project, gave an inspired talk that gave credit
to Vietnam veterans in general and VVA in particular for
its commitment to helping the nation’s newest
generation of war veterans. Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning
cartoonist and creator of Doonesbury, received the 2006
President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
“It’s particularly humbling to receive an award
for storytelling in a room so filled with magnificent stories,” Trudeau
said in his acceptance speech. “My stories aren’t
real; yours are. My stories were written in tribute to
yours, but they will never have the meaning and power of
the memories that you have carried through your lives,
sometimes willingly and with pride and sometimes with the
greatest of difficulty.”
After the Luncheon, Trudeau
spent more than two hours shaking hands with VVA and AVVA
members, posing for pictures, and autographing copies of
The Long Road Home, his latest book on the post-Iraq War
life and times of his Vietnam veteran character, B.D. VVA
President John Rowan awarded B.D. a life membership in
the organization.
Trudeau and many conferees attended the
Friday evening chuck wagon cookout, complete with a live
band, at the hotel’s Last Territory Restaurant. On
Thursday afternoon, two busloads of VVA and AVVA members
took a trip to Esperanza en Escalante, a Tucson transitional
housing program supported by VVA’s Vietnam Veterans
Assistance Fund. The event included a Mexican fiesta and
Mariachi band.
The Leadership Conference concluded on Saturday afternoon
with the low-key closing ceremonies. It featured a presentation
of VVA’s soon-to-debut new web site by Public Affairs
Committee Chair Keith King and Carol Engle, who heads VVA’s
IT operations, and official greetings and promises of future
cooperation by the visiting Ukrainian veterans.
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