The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 officially brought down the curtain on Vietnam, this country’s longest war.
Twenty years later, Vietnam is never far from the consciousness of those who were a part of it. Today, Du Page Vietnam veterans groups, comprising old soldiers not ready to fade away, are rallying to support fellow vets and to keep alive the memory of fallen comrades.
Most Vietnam veterans groups did not begin until nearly a decade after the war ended. “We didn’t even talk about being Vietnam vets until years later,” said Jim Stepanek of Winfield. Stepanek served in Vietnam with the Marine Corps in 1969. He now is the national secretary for VietNow, a widely known national group begun in Rockford in 1980. “I worked with a guy for eight years before we found out we were both Vietnam vets,” he said. “We were afraid (of) what would happen if we let that information out.”
VietNow has two chapters that are active in the western suburbs, Fox Valley VietNow and Du Page VietNow. There are 43 chapters nationwide, with the greatest number in Illinois, where it was started.
Pauleen Heinz of West Chicago publishes the newsletter for Fox Valley VietNow. The wife of a Vietnam-era vet, Heinz said, “When these guys came home from Vietnam, they were not exactly welcomed by any of the established veterans groups, such as the VFW. At the time, the VFW attitude was, `You can come and join us, but we don’t want to hear about it. You lost your war.’ This is just my personal opinion, but there seemed to be a real polarization between the older vets-the ones who served in World War II and Korea-and the Vietnam vets.”
Her viewpoint was echoed by Randy Granath, state president of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). “We were organized in the early ’80s on the East Coast precisely because of the non-response faced by the vets who were coming home. We had needs that weren’t being addressed by other organizations,” he said.
Sid Bergh, past post commander of the Villa Park VFW, admitted those attitudes did exist among VFW members. “At the time, during and right after the Vietnam War, various VFW posts did not welcome Vietnam vets. However, the Villa Park post was one that did welcome them with open arms, and there are some posts where you’ll find the majority are Vietnam vets. But I think you’ll find, even among the posts where they were not welcomed, the attitudes have changed over the years.”
The perception of Vietnam vets by the general public has changed, too. According to recent statistics compiled by VFW Magazine, 87 percent of Americans now hold Vietnam vets in high esteem.
“There’s been a tremendous change in the public’s attitude,” Stepanek said. “When we got back, instead of taking out their frustrations on the politicians, the public took it out on us. We weren’t drug-crazed baby killers then, and we aren’t now. I don’t know what caused the change. Maybe because now we’re just the guy next door with the big belly who you see working in the yard.”
The vets groups undertake myriad projects, ranging from rap groups and caring for homeless veterans to fundraising and keeping alive the POW-MIA issue.
“We do anything we can to help our fellow vets,” Stepanek said. “One of our VietNow members had a liver transplant and happened to mention that his recovery would be more comfortable if only he had a recliner chair. Within four hours we were at the La-Z-Boy showroom in Naperville,” buying a chair with money from the chapter’s relief fund.
Like VietNow, VVA chapters may champion any cause they choose, Granath said. “We let the chapters run with it. Every chapter has a different major interest, for example the POW issue. It’s up to the individual chapter what they decide to focus on.” VVA, Granath said, is an organization that continues to grow and is starting a new chapter in the Aurora area, which should be up and running by the beginning of 1994.
Camaraderie and being able to share common experiences are the reasons people continue to join Vietnam vets groups. Many Vietnam veterans have been forced to deal with the traumas they faced as adolescent warriors (the average age of the Vietnam GI was 19). The resulting emotional problems often last for years, according to Ed Klama of Downers Grove, a counselor at Hines Veterans’ Hospital PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) clinic in Hines, near Maywood.
“A lot of people sealed off their feelings around the trauma,” said Klama, himself a Vietnam vet. “As a result, they developed the capacity to seal off feelings around other emotionally charged events, and that has an alienating effect.”
Stepanek is open about sharing his past and the problems he faced. “I thought that going into bars and getting drunk and getting into fights was a normal way of life after I got back from Nam,” he said.
“In 1983, I realized I had a problem. I had gone to the dedication of the Wall (Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.), and I went totally wacko. My first wife got sick of my drinking and violence (and divorced me). I went to Hines for counseling for 4 1/2 years.”
The impetus for turning his life around, said Stepanek, was love for the woman who is his second wife. “The lady told me she wouldn’t marry me until I got that hate out of my eyes.” They recently celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary.
If the Vietnam War derailed the lives of young men, no less can be said for their families. For the past 25 years, Derna “Dee” Utter of Hinsdale has been active in Gold Star Mothers, an organization founded in 1928 for mothers of men killed in the military.
Utter’s son, Thomas, was killed after only 18 days in Vietnam. “The Gold Star Mothers are very close,” said Utter. “Even after 25 years, it really never gets any easier to talk about our boys. Mostly what our group does is projects for the Du Page Convalescent Center and the veterans there.”
Utter said she is very close to several of the VietNow members. “They’re all like my own boys.”
The memory of Utter’s son and that of 103 other servicemen from Du Page County killed in Vietnam is being kept alive through Valor, an organization co-founded by Stepanek and fellow veteran Dale Evanovich of West Chicago. The two created a Du Page County Wall of Fallen Heroes, similar to the Wall in Washington, but different in that photographs of those who gave their lives are displayed. The Wall of Fallen Heroes is exhibited free of charge anywhere in Du Page County.
“We get a lot of different reactions from people,” Evanovich said. “Some people are sort of afraid to walk into our (display) tent because we keep the lighting subdued. One lady told us she didn’t like it. She had been a war protester and said it glorified war. We tried to explain that that is not our purpose. All we want to do is make sure these men are remembered. From the families of these men, we get nothing but thanks.”
Valor’s name is derived from the singular word inscribed on the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, conferred for heroism. “We think all these guys on our Wall are heroes,” explained Stepanek. “Freedom doesn’t come cheap; Valor displays very graphically what the price of freedom is.”
