A group of Vietnam veterans affiliated with the helicopter displayed in All Veterans Memorial Park joined area residents Monday morning for a memorial service and program at the park in Soden’s Grove.
Three crew members — Ed Venable of Merritt Island, Fla., Jim Williams of Russellville, Ark., and Gary Hennessey of Utah — had been in Emporia when the helicopter was dedicated on Memorial Day 2007. The men had made it their goal to restore the aging helicopter to its original specifications, and had launched a fundraising effort to pay for the project. Olpe schoolchildren conducted several fundraisers that, coupled with other donations, did not reach the originally estimated cost of $50,000 for a full restoration that would have involved taking the helicopter apart, lifting it with a crane, and transporting it away to be painted.
Enough money was raised, however, to pay for paint and supplies needed by Hartford resident Justin Klumpe, a U.S. Navy veteran now serving in the reserves. Klumpe was trained in painting aircraft and volunteered to do the job at no charge. Klumpe was working out-of-state and his family was preparing to join him when the painting was underway in August of last year.
Venable and Williams were joined here by Herb Koenig of Texas, John Hirsch of South Dakota, John Highfill of Maryland, and Jim Alford of Michigan. Hennessey was not able to attend because of a serious illness.
The men had used the long weekend in Emporia for a reunion as well as a return to the helicopter that had played such a significant role in their lives.
“A lot us haven’t seen each other in 37 years,” Venable said.
After the ceremony, the crew posed together in front of the Huey, then separately with their wives, for photographs.
On Monday, master of ceremonies Ron Whitney introduced crew members and brought them to stand in front of the American flag at the center of the memorial.
The introduction preceded the keynote address by Don Coldsmith, who served as a combat medic during World War II and was a family doctor for 30 years. He currently writes western-themed historical novels, including the Spanish Bit series, and a newspaper column, “Horsin’ Around.”
“I tried in, believe it or not, in artillery with mules,” Coldsmith told about 150 people gathered for the ceremony and program.
Mules, he said, had a different temperament and different loyalty than the horses he was used to dealing with on the family farm.
“Best of all, if you do something wrong, the mules straighten it out for you,’ he said.
Coldsmith had little opportunity to use his skills with mules during his military service. Much of the time was spent in the South Pacific and in Japan, after he and a shipload of military men and women completed the trip around the tip of South America and on to Leyte, a province in The Philippines.
Those on the ship had no idea where they were headed when they left port, Coldsmith said. He managed to keep his bearings for a while by relying on the North Star and the sun’s risings and settings. After a time, the North Star seemed to disappear.
”The sun came up in wrong places,” he said. “... When I finally realized we’d passed the equator. I’d never been anyplace you couldn’t see the North Star. You could see the Southern Cross, which I didn’t know anything about.”
Coldsmith learned that in much of the South Pacific, no one saluted officers, nor did they appear to answer to officers; insignias were not worn because they made the soldiers vulnerable to attack by Japanese snipers, who sat in trees, waiting for an opportunity to kill an American in authority.
“The Japanese snipers would wait for days for somebody who had any indication of rank,” Coldsmith said. “This was an interesting situation, and one that I would not care to experience again at all.”
In The Philippines, Coldsmith became a combat medic, which he believed was because he had perhaps one or two more years of education than some of the other enlistees and volunteers. He laughed as he explained his qualifications for the assignment.
“I had had first aid in Boy Scouts,” he said. “That was about it.”
He later was put in charge of medics at a prison camp in Japan, where prisoners commonly were tortured by the Japanese.
“This was one of the really bad (prisons) that abused,” Coldsmith said. “There are articles of war that say there are some things you can’t do to prisoners.”
Later, after he returned home, Coldsmith said he looked over notes he had taken during his time in the military.
“Did I really do that? Did I really see that?” he recalled thinking. “And the answer is, ‘Yes, I did.’”
Others who took part in the memorial service on Monday were: the Rev. James Akers, Kansas American Legion Department Chaplain, who led the opening prayer; Boy and Girl Scouts, who led the Pledge of Allegiance; Richelle Birk and Linda Russel, who read the names in a Memorial Roll Call of approximately 110 veterans who had died during the past year; Leslie Draper and Frank Sloat, who raised the American flag; Doug McGaw, who read “Little Green Tents”; and Lt. Col. (ret.) Lee Hoskins, closing prayer.
Sloat was color guard commander and Cleat Buckbee was firing squad commander.
Other organizations that participated in the services were: American Legion Auxiliary, VFW Auxiliary, Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans, African-American Veterans, Mexican-American Veterans, and Veterans of Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and Gold Star Mothers.
Members of American Legion Post 5, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1980, Color Guard and Firing Squad went to Americus after the Emporia program to conduct a memorial service at Americus Cemetery.
midnight_rider (anonymous) says...
It was a beautiful day for a memorial service and pretty cool that the huey crew come to visit. It would be nice if the speaker would say something short and simple that would actually honor veterans instead of rambeling for 30 minutes about their "war story". Alot of people left becuse the servive was toooo looooooong. The veterans in the color guard do not need to stand there forever waiting for someone to shut up. Who ever organizes the service need to get together and realize that people to go the service to honor veterans not to be bored to death.
May 25, 2009 at 10:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
irishemporia (anonymous) says...
Did I miss it? Was Coldsmith a prisoner of war in Japan? Why was he in charge of the medics at a Japanese POW camp? Maybe I misread something.
May 25, 2009 at 11:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Perhaps the organizers of the ceremony should inform invited speakers that a time limit of ten minutes is a strict requirement. I believe ten minutes would be more than enough in view of all the other features of the ceremony.
May 26, 2009 at 8:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
Just maybe, since he writes fiction, he was speaking a little fiction also, who would know the truth? I to agree with midnight, that the color guard was beginning to suffer because of the length of time taken up by him. Since Whitney was the MC, I put some of the blame on him for not discussing with him the length of his speech. Any by the way, Bobbi Mlynar, did you not, a couple of years ago ,print an article about a military museum that was to open down there soon, I have looked for it the last 2 years and see nothing, can you please tell what ever happened to it, or am I just not seeing it.
May 26, 2009 at 8:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spectator (anonymous) says...
Yes, a museum near the memorial would have been pretty sweet. Obviously you noticed the museum didn't appear. Did you not notice the economy is in pretty poor shape but what have *you* done to make it happen? But then, a Sherman tank, a Huey helicopter and a ship's anchor, not to mention the bell from the U.S.S.Emporia, ( a frigate, decommissioned) seems to be a fairly nice outdoor museum
May 26, 2009 at 11:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
biscuitboy (anonymous) says...
.spectator.........................I'm with you on this one. I think the Veteran's Memorial is one of only two really class acts this old berg has to offer. My hat is off to all who have worked to make it a reality over the years. THANK YOU!!!!!!!
The other class act in my opinion is right across the road at the zoo.
May 26, 2009 at 7:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )