East Texans pay tribute to veterans

By ANDY PHIFER, Cox East Texas

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

NACOGDOCHES – A crowd gathered Monday in front of the Nacogdoches County Courthouse amidst rows of American flags to honor the soldiers who have fought for freedom at home and abroad.

The Memorial Day celebration began with a prayer honoring and remembering fallen soldiers and ended with the playing of "Taps" to commemorate those lost.

Ret. Lt. General Orren Whiddon of Lufkin spoke to the crowd about the importance of Memorial Day.

"The freedom we have is the essential backbone of our everyday lives," Whiddon said. "We were born to be free, but our freedom isn't free."

Whiddon said a day like Memorial Day is important for Americans now as a show of support for our troops overseas.

"There are men and women there fighting for our freedom that take a great deal of hope knowing that we're supporting them," he said.

Whiddon, a Vietnam veteran, East Texas native and Stephen F. Austin State University graduate, spoke to a crowd of nearly 50 at the Vietnam Veterans of America Lufkin/Nacogdoches Chapter 931-sponsored event. Veterans and families attended to pay respect to the soldiers.

"Over 1 million Americans have died in defense of our freedom," Whiddon said. "Most are buried in America, but (more than 120,000) are buried in 24 cemeteries in other nations overseas."

Whiddon spoke about three of those cemeteries he has visited – one in Normandy, one in Margraten, Holland, and one in Luxemburg.

"There are 8,721 buried (at Normandy)," he said. "At one time, there were more than 20,000 buried there that have since been returned. These 8,000 soldiers' graves send a long-term message of freedom. We know what it is to bleed and cry, to die and serve our country."

Whiddon told about a cemetery in Margraten where more than 8,000 Americans are buried.

"Each soldier (at the Margraten cemetery) has an adopted Dutch family which places flags and flowers on the graves to honor our fallen comrades," Whiddon said. "You look across that beautiful cemetery at all those flags and flowers and see someone does care about the young men who were killed from Chireno, Nacogdoches, Garrison and Lufkin."

Whiddon then spoke about a cemetery in Luxembourg where Gen. George Patton is buried.

"Patton said, 'If I am killed, I want to be buried with my soldiers,'" Whiddon said. "He died shortly after, and has the same marker as his fallen comrades.

"In these three cemeteries, one thing comes across: America stands for freedom – not just for Americans, but for all around the world," he said. "At the end of the day, we can ask ourselves who has benefitted from freedom in America – every man, woman and child ever born in America, and hundreds of thousands overseas."

Whiddon concluded by reading a poem he said was written by an anonymous poet: "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

 




Vietnam vets take center stage throughout presidential race

By Matt Gouras, The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The last time the Vietnam War loomed so large in a presidential election, it was 1972 and American soldiers were still fighting in Southeast Asia.

But the war has taken center stage again as both parties seek the support of Vietnam veterans.

At a conference this past week, the Vietnam Veterans of America urged its members to make their voices heard.

"This election is probably more important than any election for president since the Vietnam era," Navy veteran Ed Vick told the roughly 550 veterans at the convention Wednesday. "We must vote."

For Vietnam veterans - many of whom once felt disconnected from mainstream politics - it's surprising to be an important part of the 2004 presidential election.

"I had no idea I would be in the position I am now," said David Chung, a VVA member. "A lot of people thought or hoped Vietnam would go away, but 30 years later, it is at the center of things."

Bill Chapman, a VVA member from Cocoa, Fla., remembers joining the Veterans of Foreign Wars when he returned from Vietnam and being told he didn't fight in a real war.

"Back then, VFW, the American Legion really didn't want anything to do with us," said Tom Meinhardt of Michigan. "Now they are begging us to join their outfits."

Democratic candidate John Kerry, a founding member of the VVA, is making his Vietnam experience a key part of his campaign, partly to highlight that President Bush avoided serving in Vietnam. In response, conservative groups are bringing out veterans to question Kerry's service.

Many VVA members at the convention were hesitant to talk about the political scene for fear of seeming to publicly endorse one candidate over another. Along with the group's connection to Kerry, its members include officials of the Bush administration such as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who also addressed delegates Wednesday.

Others, like Chung, hold a strong opinion that Kerry abandoned his comrades by returning home and opposing the war.

The VVA said it never endorses a candidate.
7/4/2004 Magazine profiles Lufkin veteran


By LYNN WINTHROP, The Lufkin Daily News


Maynard Campbell’s military service spanned more than 30 years and three wars. He fought in two of those wars — World War II and Vietnam — and perhaps typical of his generation, the 85-year-old says even though he's "been over the dam a time or two," he doesn't regret a minute of his service.

"No, not really," Campbell said when asked the question. "I think it's a very honorable thing to do, because you're trying to defend the people who are still living here."

An American flag is proudly displayed on a flagpole outside the home Campbell shares with his wife, Clarinda, just north of Lufkin. Another flag — one that has flown over the nation's capitol — hangs on the wall of the couple's living room, honoring a son who passed away. The Campbells also have three daughters, including one who was just six weeks old when Campbell was first called overseas in 1943.

Campbell is a native of Richmond, Texas, and the son of a traveling evangelist ended up finishing school in Alvin. Originally from Kansas, Clarinda met met her husband at a dance while he was stationed in Denver. She said he had to ask her several times to marry him before she finally relented. The couple will celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary in February.

"There's been some good ones and some rough ones, but the good Lord has taken care of us," Campbell said about their years together.

"And we're still together," Clarinda added.

Along with six other veterans whose years of service spanned three decades and three wars, Campbell was featured in the May/June 2004 issue of The VVA Veteran magazine, a publication of Vietnam Veterans of America. The magazine wrote that according to the U.S. Census, more than 160,000 of the eight million Vietnam-era veterans alive in 2000 had also been in the armed forces during World War II and Korea.

Campbell's military career began even before WWII got under way. He enlisted in the 69th Coastal Artillery in Galveston in February 1937, shortly after his 18th birthday. A transfer to the Army Air Corps in Colorado came two years later, followed by armament school, stints at several U.S. ports and eventually an overseas assignment in 1943.

He returned after the war to take B-29 training in Denver, but since it had been canceled, he was sent to Nebraska to train pilots instead. Campbell was then stationed in Galveston, which still housed German prisoners at the time, before being discharged from his last duty station in Denver in 1945.

And even though he soldiered through the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Italy, Campbell's comments about WWII were typically understated.

"That World War II was a mess — on both oceans," he said.

"We had some rough times there in Italy," he added later.

Campbell was wounded when his unit came under attack one night. In the darkness, he ran into barbed wire while trying to get away from the bombing and the sharp metal pierced his ankle. The wound still gives him a little trouble, but he didn't receive a Purple Heart because there was no documentation of the incident.

He also missed out on a Bronze Star in Vietnam because the building where the records were stored was destroyed just as the war was ending.

"Thank the good Lord, because he kept a good watch over me," Campbell said.

The overseas assignments were hard on Clarinda, especially during WWII when she said she was "left at home in Denver with the little ones." She recounted that the six-week-old daughter Campbell had left behind didn't know her daddy very well when he returned from the war. Once, when Campbell tried to stop the then 15-month-old from sucking her thumb, the girl reached out and slapped him.

"She had never seen a man around the house," Clarinda said. "And she wasn't going to put up with it."

After his discharge, Campbell had been working as a carpenter when the Korean War rolled around. The guard wouldn't accept him again, initially, because he had cut his hand on a table saw. Two operations later, the guard let him sign up for a full-time job as an air technician.

"In 1953, I joined the Colorado Air National Guard for 18 years," Campbell said. "And that's how I got hooked into going to Vietnam. They sent us over there for a year."

The 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron was one of the few National Guard units deployed to Vietnam. Having made rank, Chief Master Sgt. Campbell found himself back in the thick things again, and his ammunition maintenance squadron was assigned to Phan Rang Air Base.

The base was rocketed nearly every night, but Campbell said perhaps his scariest encounter was with a "big ol' black panther."

"I opened the door to go to the latrine one night, and honest to God, I could have reached out and touched him," Campbell said. "I went one way and he went the other."

Campbell said he later learned the panther was a regular on the base, often dining on what the soldiers had thrown out. He celebrated his 50th birthday in Vietnam, and eventually made it back home in 1971.

After a brief stay in Lufkin in 1971-72 — where Campbell worked as a service man for Stafford Liquigas — the couple spent the next eight years in California before Campbell put an end to his military service in September 1978.

"That's when I retired," Campell said. "I said, ‘That's enough.”’

Maynard and Clarinda have made their home in Lufkin for the past 16 years.

Campbell's Air Force retirement reflects more than 30 years of combined military service. He is a life member of the Air Force Sergeants Association and a past president of Chapter 1365 in San Diego. Campbell is also a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans, and plans to become a life member of Vietnam Veterans of America.

He also proudly points to his membership in The Order of the Silver Rose, a group fighting to get a law passed allowing Vietnam vets who were exposed to Agent Orange to receive a Purple Heart.

Campbell's prostate cancer, which has been in remission for several years now, is thought to have been caused by Agent Orange. Until the law is passed, the groups hands out its own medals to veterans.

Lynn Winthrop's e-mail address is lwinthrop@coxnews.com.