"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."

-- Major Michael Davis O'Donnell, 1 January 1970, Dak To, Vietnam

                                                                                      

Seven Who Gave All

            On the last day of June in 2005, I parked near the grave Israel Ingram overlooking Woolwine, Virginia. With the Blue Ridge Mountains framing the scene, I paused a few minutes due to a thunder and lightning storm rolling over the mountains with a heavy downpour of rain. With the sky on fire and water pelting the ground, I thought of the young man buried in front of me in this beautiful spot in our home county of Patrick. I found a photo of Israel Ingram on the Internet and immediately thought I would like him. His photo showed a young African-American with a nice smile and a friendly disposition. In fact, he was soldier in the United States Army in Vietnam. He made the ultimate sacrifice for his country by laying down his life. He left a young daughter in Ohio and a strong impression on me. I was fourteen years old when the Vietnam Conflict ended in the spring of 1975 with the United States pulling out with helicopters off the embassy in Saigon. News coverage of the anniversary and the recent attempts to remember the soldiers from Patrick County in World War Two stimulated my interest in the next generation who fought in Southeast Asia.

            I know many men who fought in Vietnam and survived to live productive lives in Patrick County. I know of many men who carried scares from Vietnam and some who could not handle it. They are all different except for one thing. They were willing to serve their country in a war that ended unpopular and they suffered what no soldiers from this country faced before from their own countrymen when they returned. I think we spent too much time concentrating on those against the war or were unwilling to serve and not enough about those brave enough to put their life on the line for this country.

            This web page is a tribute to seven men who lost their lives in Vietnam who had a connection to Patrick County, Virginia. Most grew up in the “Free State of Patrick” and one married a Patrick County lady. Six of them rest today in Jeb Stuart’s “Dear Old Hills of Patrick” and one in Richmond. I did not have the honor of knowing any of them, but I have visited all their graves. We should not forget anyone who lost his or her lives fighting for the United States of America regardless of your opinion of the policy of the government at the time or later. This my simple way of remembering and honoring these heroes from Patrick County, Virginia.

Private First Class ROGER DALE BOWMAN, United States Army

Age: 21 Home: Ararat, Virginia Born: February 17, 1947

Parents: Curtis P. and Josephine Eaton Bowman of Ararat, Virginia.

Siblings: None

Enterprise Obituary: August 21, 1968

Roger worked in textile mill in Mount Airy, North Carolina, until inducted into U. S. Army on October 18, 1967. He received training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He had a thirty day leave before leaving for Vietnam via Oakland, California four months before his death. Parents had premonition of his death and tried to get safer service for him.

Sergeant (SP4) FREDERICK CURTIS BULLINGTON,

1st Battalion Infantry Division, U. S. Army

Age: 20 Spencer, Virginia

Sisters: Mrs. John Rodgers; Miss Patricia Bullington and Miss Janice Scearce, both of Spencer, Virginia.

Enterprise Obituary: June 2, 1966

Education: Hardin Reynolds High School.

Frederick C. Bullington entered the U. S. Army in 1964. Wounded on May 6 in the face and neck, he died in a Philippines hospital. His mother traveled to the Philippines at invitation of the Department of Defense and was present at his death.

 Corporal BOBBY LARRY CORNS, United States Army

Age: 26, Stuart, Virginia

Born: March 10, 1941

Corns entered the U.S. Army in October 1965. After training at Fort Hood, Texas, Corns returned home for 30 days leave before going to Vietnam on November 19, 1966. Corns received a wound in the hip on March 13, 1967, but returned to duty without coming home on leave.

Sergeant (SP4) ISRAEL LONZO INGRAM, United States Army

Age: 26, Columbus, Ohio

Inducted into the U. S. Army in 1963, Ingram was working in Columbus, Ohio. After two years, Ingram reenlisted for six years. Ingram died in hospital after receiving wounds. His parents were notified on March 6, 1968, Ingram’s 27th birthday.

Lance Corporal JOHN MATHAS JAMES

Company H, 3rd Marines, United States Marine Corps

James died of mortar fire near Da Nang, South Vietnam. He was brought home by his father, who was also serving in Vietnam, for burial in Patrick County.

 Private First Class BERNARD ALLEN SOWDER

167th Signal Company, United States Army

Education: Woolwine High School

 Warrant Officer LARRY JAMES TALLEY, United States Army

Age: 22, Home: Richmond, Virginia

Larry Talley’s wife was from Patrick County and they would have been married for one year on December 21, 1969. Talley was a helicopter pilot shot down in flames by enemy gunfire. He had been in Vietnam for one month and in the U. S. Army for 14 ½ months.

    Vietnam’s history stretches back over a thousand years to 939 when the country got independence from China. Before that the Hun and T’ang dynasties ruled China and Vietnam. In 1407, China invaded again and was driven out twenty-one years later. In 1620 the country was divided with the Trinh Family ruling in the north and the Nguyen in the south.

    In 1858, France invaded Vietnam. In 1887, the French merged Vietnam with Cambodia and six years later in 1893 Laos was added to French Indochina. From 1926 until 1955 a royal family ruled Vietnam. The last emperor was Bao Dai beginning his rule in 1926.

    Ho Chi Minh became synonymous with the nation of Vietnam. He fought the French, Japanese and Americans. In 1919, the World War One Peace Conference in France ignored his eight demands that included freedom of speech and representation in the French Parliament. In 1930, he founded the Indochina Communist Party with its military arm the Viet Minh in 1941, the same year the Japanese invaded. Ironically, the Viet Minh takes Hanoi while being supplied by the United States. Japanese control of Vietnam ended with the end of World War Two in 1945. Minh founds the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but is rejected by the French and U. S. President Harry S. Truman.  Ho Chi Minh lived until 1969.

    In 1946, the French invade Vietnam. The following year the U. S. began a communist containment policy. In 1949, China fell to the communists just north of Vietnam and the following year the Korean War begins. In 1954 North Vietnam became Communist controlled. The French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and sought peace. The results were the Geneva Accords that created a cease fire, divided the country along the 17^th Parallel with a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and called for free elections in 1956 and reunification. North Vietnam would be ruled under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem from 1955 until 1963. The United States ousted the last emperor, Bao Dai, from power.

    Diem ruled through force rather than democracy. He reversed the communist land redistribution uprooting entire villages. Nepotism was rampant and Diem, a Catholic, persecuted Buddhists, who were the majority in Vietnam. Diem was opposed by the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong, who were supported by the North Vietnamese Communists. A crackdown on them brought them sympathy.

    By 1960, the Soviet Union was helping communists in neighboring Laos. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent military advisors to South Vietnam believing in the Domino Theory began by President Eisenhower that stated if one nation fell to communism in Southeast Asia it would cause a chain reaction leading to total communist takeovers in countries such as Thailand. In one year the number of Americans rose from 1,000 to 15,000.

    Diem was assassinated in November 1963 just a few weeks before John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. After Kennedy’s death in November 1963, Texan Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency. The following August 7 Johnson called on the U. S. Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions to give him powers to wage war on North Vietnam after a PT Boat from the north fired on a U. S. Destroyer on August 2, 1964. Congress passes the resolution 504 to 2. Johnson is elected that November in one of the largest landslides in history.

    On March 8, 1865, 3,500 U. S. Combat Troops arrive in South Vietnam. They were Marines sent to protect the air base at Da Nang. By December there are 184,300 American Troops in the country and 1,363 are already dead and 7,645 are wounded. Johnson began Operation Rolling Thunder including bombing North Vietnam.

    The following year 1966 there were 400,000 U. S. Soldiers in Vietnam. The strategy was one of attrition believing that killing the communists would break their will, but they practiced guerrilla tactics that frustrated and demoralized the Americans. American General Westmoreland began a policy of "search and destroy" with large numbers of dead communists hoping to wear down the Viet Cong. The battle of Ia Drang in November 1965 convinced Westmoreland that search and destroy would work.

    The communists controlled the rural areas and the Americans the urban areas of South Vietnam. One American summed it this way. “We own the day. The Viet Cong owned the night.” By the end of 1966, there were 385,300 Americans in Vietnam. That year 37,738 were wounded and 6,644 died. The average age of the U. S. Soldier in Vietnam was nineteen. By the end of 1967, there were 485,600 troops and 99,762 had been wounded and 16,021 were dead.

    There were 500,000 Americans in Vietnam. The war was costing three billion dollars a month. The use of napalm and Agent Orange began. At home, many Americans began to question the war. On January 30, 1968, the communists launched the Tet Offensive, striking thirty targets at once including the U. S. Embassy in Saigon. While a tactical victory for the U. S. a chain reaction begins with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara resigning and in April President Johnson declines to run for reelection. By the end of 1968, 536,100 troops were present and 192,850 were wounded and 30,160 had died.

    Morale hits a low point with the My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U. S. troops. Richard M. Nixon was elected President of the United States and begins a policy of Vietnamization, which included a gradual withdrawal of the United States troops turning the war over to the South Vietnamese. By the end of 1969, 475,200 American Troops were in Vietnam and 262,796 had been wounded and 40,024 had lost their lives.

    Nixon expanded the scope of the bombing to include the neighboring countries of Cambodia in 1970 and invades Laos the following year with ground forces. In 1972, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam begin peace negotiations including China and the Soviet Union. A cease fire occurs in January 1973. In March U. S. Troops began to leave Vietnam. Nixon will resign in August 1974 after the Watergate Scandal. During the scandal focus leaves Vietnam and the communists stepped up pressure. On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the communists reuniting Vietnam.

    On February 12, 1973, the last American POWs were released ending the United States involvement in the country. The losses during the United States involvement in the Vietnam Conflict were two million civilian deaths, 1.1 million North Vietnamese soldiers, 200,000 South Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives. Over 200,000 Americans were wounded and 58,000 United States Soldiers died including seven with Patrick County connections. Three million soldiers came home, but to a less than warm reaction. One soldier, Lt. J. G. Strandberg summed it up this way. “One thing worries me…Will people want to hear about it? Or will they want to forget the whole thing happened.”

    The Vietnam Conflict resulted in the 26^th Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 believing that if an American could died for their country they should be able to vote. The War Powers Resolution passed the U. S. Congress restricting the powers of the president to wage war.

    As the United States of America celebrated two hundred years of existence in July 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam began its first year as reunited nation.

                                                                                               

                                                               

In 2005, Patrick County decided to rename the county administration to honor all those who gave their lives in combat by renaming the building the Veterans Memorial Administration Building. That same year the Patrick County Genealogical Society began work on a book to honor those who fought in World War Two. I thought about those slightly older than myself who fought and died in the Vietnam Conflict. A memorial on the courthouse grounds honored the seven who died during the war and I thought a shadowbox with the rubbings of their names from the Vietnam Soldiers Memorial in Washington, D. C. would be an appropriate addition to the Wall of Honor in the Patrick County Veterans Memorial Building.

The completed shadowbox of the seven men from Patrick County who gave all in Vietnam shown above at the Bassett Historical Center during a two month exhibit along with the accompanying book about the men. Below on the Wall of Honor in the Patrick County Veterans Memorial Administration Building in Stuart, Virginia.

 

 

 

Service in Vietnam

There were 17 different campaign periods, but the first, which was called the Vietnam Advisory Campaign, covered the period from March 15, 1962 to March 7, 1964. During this time there were never more than a few thousand U.S. troops involved in Vietnam.

Courtesy of http://usmilitary.about.com/

Remembering Those Who Came Home

 "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

-- Theodore Roosevelt

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Unlike any other war fought by the United States of America, those who served in Vietnam came home to less than a heroes welcome. In order to remember those who served their country the Patrick County Vietnam Service Project will collect the names, photos and other information about those men and women who served.

This information will be compiled and placed at the Patrick County Historical Society, Bassett Historical Center, The Hollow History Center and the Thomas D. Perry Collection in Special Collections at Virginia Tech.

Links

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall http://thewall-usa.com/

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Virtual Wall http://www.virtualwall.org/

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund http://www.vvmf.org/

National Park Service Vietnam Veterans Memorial http://www.nps.gov/vive/

Vietnam Veterans Chapter 172 site http://www.vietnamwall.org/

The Vietnam War

http://www.vietnamwar.com/

http://www.vietnampix.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/

http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/

http://vietnam.vassar.edu/

http://www.veteranshour.com/nam.htm

Zeb Stuart Scales Memorial Bridge

    In 2006, Tom Perry went before the Patrick County Board of Supervisors requesting the bridge over the Dan River on the Ararat Highway

be named the Command Sergeant Major Zeb Stuart Scales Memorial Bridge. Working with Supervisor Jonathon Large and the Scales Family

the Board of Supervisors approved the request and funded the project to honor Patrick County's most decorated non-commissioned soldier.

What Can You Say About A Man: A Tribute to Zeb Stuart Scales

What can you say about a man’s life? I could tell you about a man who could wiggle his ears while pinching the blood out of your leg with his toes as he beat you at a hand of cards. I could tell you about a man who showed me how to make molasses from scratch, taught me how to use a chain saw and who made stacking wood an art form. But what I really want to share is that I am a better man for having known Zeb Stuart Scales and that Patrick County and the United States of America is a better place for his having served it.

                                                                                   

Copyright 2006 Tom Perry. No material to be used without permission. Contact Information: P. O. Box 50 Ararat VA 24053 freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com