Week of events on Oahu to honor Vietnam veterans

Although Hawaii is known as the place where the United States entered World War II, it also is imbued with the echoes and history of another time and conflict: the Vietnam War.

The state was a stopover for many of the 3.4 million American service members who deployed to Southeast Asia between 1964 and 1975.

Hawaii’s tropical climes provided a brief respite for GIs meeting up with loved ones on rest and recuperation leave halfway between home and a war that seemed a world away.

Between 1966 and 1967 the 25th Division out of Schofield Barracks was the largest division in Vietnam.

The Kapalama military reservation mortuary, meanwhile, saw to the passage home of some of those killed in the jungles and rice paddies.

“For many of our honored Vietnam veterans, Hawaii was the last American soil they saw before their life was cut short in Vietnam. In many cases, Hawaii was also the first American soil they stepped foot upon when coming home,” the state’s 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration Committee said.

It is based on that role in the war, and in recognition of nearly 36,000 Vietnam veterans still living in Hawaii, that the committee has based a week’s worth of 50th-anniversary activities starting today and running through Monday.

Plans include a parade down Kalakaua Avenue; a “Welcome Home Concert” at the Waikiki Shell with Tony Orlando and Ann-Margret; a prisoner of war/Gold Star family/Medal of Honor banquet at the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor; and an F-105 dedication at the museum followed by a Vietnam War symposium.

Ending the events is a Memorial Day ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Approximately 3,000 people from Hawaii, the mainland and allied countries, including Australia, are already registered to attend, said committee member Ken DeHoff, executive director of operations at the Pacific Aviation Museum and a Vietnam combat vet.

“For the last 2-1/2 years, we’ve been planning this week of events in Honolulu to be essentially a return for another R&R,” DeHoff said. “In Vietnam, if guys were married, most of them would take their (leave) in Hawaii and meet their wives. And so that’s what we’re trying to replicate.”

DeHoff said the museum banquet Thursday, whose 500 seats are already sold out, will feature a Bob Hope impersonator and USO-type show. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, a Vietnam helicopter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient who rescued more than 70 seriously wounded men in 1968, will speak at some of the events.

A combined mayor’s, governor’s and Vietnam 50th Anniversary Commemoration Committee Memorial Day ceremony will be held at Punchbowl on Monday at 8:30 a.m. Music will begin around 8:15 a.m.

“The decision to combine the ceremony is for the mayor and governor to recognize the 50th anniversary (of the Vietnam War) and to honor all those who served during the Vietnam War,” Punchbowl spokesman Gene Maestas said.

He added that there will be no Memorial Day ceremony at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe this year. No public parking will be allowed in Punchbowl for the event. Parking is available at the Alapai Transit Center and Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building, according to the city Department of Parks and Recreation. McKinley High School will be used for overflow parking. Shuttles will run from the Alapai center.

Former President Barack Obama in 2012 called upon federal, state and local officials “to honor our Vietnam veterans.”

Obama paid tribute to the more than 3 million servicemen and women who served in the war and the more than 58,000 who gave their lives for their country — honoring “a generation of proud Americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced.”

In 1962, 12,000 American military advisers were in Vietnam. Between 1965 and 1969 U.S. troop strength rose from 60,000 to more than 543,000 in the country, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

DEHOFF noted that aging Vietnam vets are now dying at a rate of 350 a day. Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allan Kellogg Jr., who saved fellow Marines by smothering a grenade in a rice paddy in 1970, is the only Medal of Honor recipient still living in Hawaii.

DeHoff had his own close call in Vietnam when, as a 22-year-old flying a Cobra attack helicopter with C Troop of the 16th Air Cavalry, he was shot down over the Mekong Delta on March 21, 1971, while providing support to Schofield soldiers on the ground.

“I actually broke my back on the crash. We went down in quite a fiery crash,” DeHoff said. “Most of the guys didn’t think we lived. We went on to lose 22 helicopters that day in that firefight.”

Despite his injuries, DeHoff was able to help his dazed co-pilot get out of the cockpit while rockets in pods on the chopper “cooked off” in the fire and shot out of their tubes.

“We were on the ground for about seven hours until we got the firefight a little bit more stabilized and they could come in and pick us up,” he recalled.

There was a lot of turmoil as service members came back from the war, facing questions from an anti-war movement over “what role did they play — were they baby killers?” DeHoff said. “Were they fighting a war that nobody wanted halfway around the world?”

All these decades later, “I think the message to the world that most Vietnam veterans would like to have shared is, we went over, we did our job, we did it well, we had good equipment and we came home and moved on with life,” he said.

More than 50 years on, Vietnam veterans “are in leadership positions around the world — and they’ve done their part to make this world more peaceful and safe,” DeHoff added.

50th-anniversary events:

>> Wednesday: Welcome Home Concert, Waikiki Shell. Gates open at 5 p.m., concert at 5:30 p.m. Free to the public, no ticket required to enter. Featuring Tony Orlando as headliner, Gordon Freitas as warm-up. Special guest speakers are retired Cols. Gene Castagnetti and William Reeder. POW award presentation by Ann-Margret.

>> Saturday: F-105 Dedication, Pacific Aviation Museum, 11 a.m. As part of the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the war, Vietnam veterans will be on hand to help unveil the F-105. Retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, former Huey pilot and Medal of Honor recipient, and Dr. William S. Reeder Jr., a retired Army colonel, former Cobra pilot and the last combat POW of the Vietnam War, will also participate in a dedication ceremony for the museum’s newly updated Huey and Cobra helicopters. Free with museum admission and free to museum members, members of the military and military families with valid ID.

>> Saturday: Meet and greet Vietnam veterans, symposium, Pacific Aviation Museum, 1 p.m. Speeches by Medal of Honor recipients, book signings and a meet-and-greet with Vietnam veterans. Free with museum admission and free to museum members, members of the military and military families with valid ID.

>> Saturday: Vietnam 50 Years Memorial Parade, 5 p.m., Kalakaua Avenue/Kapiolani Park, with the Marine Forces Pacific Band, other marching bands and parade entries. Starts on Kalakaua Avenue.

>> Monday: 8:30 a.m., Memorial Day service, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

For more information: vietnam50years.org.