'You're never ready' — Emotional ceremony in Grand Island features talk by Vietnam veteran

“A Tribute to Our Vietnam Veterans” was presented Wednesday afternoon in front of the Hall County Courthouse.

The moving ceremony was attended by about 180 people. That group included six women holding flags, standing atop the parking garage across the street.

The day began with seven members of the Nebraska Army National Guard marching from Hall County Veterans Park to the courthouse. The flags they carried were in memory of the Hall County natives who died in Vietnam.

At the end of the ceremony, some of the flags were claimed by relatives of the fallen heroes.

Claiming one of the flags were Judy Jorgensen of Grand Island and Don Gillham of St. Paul, who were first cousins of Richard Gerald Gillham. That Grand Island native died on Jan. 10, 1969, at the age of 20.

Jorgensen and Don Gillham are sister and brother. Their father, Leo Gillham, was the brother of Richard Gillham’s father, Gerald.

Jorgensen remembers looking up to Richard Gillham. Don Gillham doesn’t remember Richard because he was only 4 when he died.

He was “a great guy. He was fun — a fun cousin,” said Jorgensen, who was 10 when Richard died.

For the family, the loss of Richard Gillham was “very hard, especially on his dad,” Don said. Richard was Gerald’s only biological child. Richard’s mother was Ursula Gillham.

They plan to bring the flag to Richard’s sister, Barb Evans, who lives in Lincoln.

The highlight of Wednesday’s program was a talk by Jim Seim of Grand Island, who served in Vietnam.

Seim, now 79, described what it was like for a kid from Nebraska to be sent to a far-off war. His comments made it clear how difficult it was.

“Sixty years ago, thousands of us, barely a year or two out of high school, were sent around to the other side of the world, to a place called Vietnam,” Seim said. “We weren’t sure what we were ready for, for those of us who were boots on the ground — soldiers in the combat area. You’re never ready for what’s around the corner.

“We weren’t sure about the people there — whether they wanted us there. They were poor people. They lived in a desolate area. They worked like they had for hundreds of years — by hand. They walked everywhere they went. They had no equipment, no transportation. And they lived in grass shacks,” Seim said.

“The first time we landed in Vietnam, we were sent to a base up along the DMZ, which was the dividing line between North and South Vietnam. At this base, we got our first glimpse of the enemy. The base had been hit, and they had a handful of captives. These guys weren’t 5 foot tall, didn’t weigh 80 pounds. They looked like 14-year-olds back in America. We weren’t ready for that,” said Seim, who sometimes fought back tears as he spoke.

The sounds of war became prevalent, he said. “We heard every gun, every weapon, every sound. And they got worse and worse, week by week, month by month. And the only sound we really wanted to hear was the sound of silence,” he said.

On Christmas of 1967, “North Vietnam decided to give us a 24-hour cease fire, for our Christmas — one complete day with all quiet. And about 9 o’clock that night, the Good Lord blessed us with a moonlit clear sky full of stars. Sixty of us from different states all over America sat on top of our bunker and looked up into the stars and dreamed about the day we’d come home.”

Seim talked about his time at Khe Sanh. Army Gen. William Westmoreland traveled to many bases, including Khe Sanh.

Thousands of North Vietnamese troops were moving south toward the South Vietnamese border.

“Westmoreland warned us,” Seim said. He told the soldiers to honor the Chinese New Year.

“But he said, ‘Don’t let your guard down.’ He said they’re planning something massive,” Seim said. “And they hit us with everything they had.”

Khe Sanh became the deadliest, longest battle of the war.

“It was said that there was more bombs dropped over Khe Sanh than over Germany during all of World War II,” Seim said.

“An estimated 20,000 North Vietnamese hit that base. Only 3,000 Marines were there,” he said.

The Tet offensive “continued month after month. We lost track of time,” he said.

So many soldiers in bunkers, foxholes and trenches “lived in their uniforms for weeks without changing, barely able to take their boots off,” he said.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Seim said. A lot of soldiers had it “a lot worse than I ever did.

“Back in the States, we weren’t sure what was really happening. The information that was being fed back home was either misinterpreted or it was false,” he said. “And we weren’t ready for the way we were going to be treated when we (came) home.”

People all over America were protesting the war. Many protesters “seemed to know when we were coming home. At least in California they did,” he said.

At one airport, he remembers hundreds of protesters, who yelled at the returning soldiers, calling them names, and threw things. They blamed the soldiers for the war.

“For those of us who were getting out, we hung our heads, took off our uniforms. We threw them in the corner. And we didn’t talk about the Vietnam War for 40 years.”

For 50 years, Seim was friends with a man named Larry Kelly. “We worked together for more than 30 years, and we never once mentioned that we’d been in the war.”

Later, “we found out that we’d been in the same places at the same time.”

But about 10 years ago, “America did a major flip-flop,” he said. In cities all over the country, people raised “money to send planeloads of veterans to Washington, D.C., to say thank you.”

People in Hall County probably put more into that effort than anywhere, he said.

Seim recalled his emotional experience taking a Hero Flight to Washington.

Gathering at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport, “we were greeted by volunteers who reached out to shake our hand and say thank you for your service.”

For three days, the Vietnam veterans were taken all over Washington. They received special treatment everywhere they went.

“Grade school kids came out by the busloads just to shake our hand,” he said.

The trip, of course, included a visit to the Vietnam memorial. “And there at the wall, 80 of us Vietnam veterans stood gazing at that beautiful black onyx wall.”

They searched for the names of buddies, comrades “and in some cases relatives.”

As Seim stood at the wall, “I saw my own reflection — an old man standing there” looking at the onyx wall.

He tried to picture the young men he knew who did not come home. “I tried to see a little bit of a smile on their face.”

Some of those soldiers he knew only for a few short months. Others he knew for a couple of years.

He knew some of them only by their nicknames.

Seim talked about the triumphant reception they received at the Grand Island airport.

A giant flag flew, and the Northwest High School band played one patriotic song after another. Members of a veterans support group, standing by their motorcycles, lined the route the veterans took as they hit the tarmac. Behind a fence stood thousands of people.

Unlike the protesters, who told them they were not welcome, those Nebraskans welcomed them home.

Seim stood next to his wife and tried to take it all in.

He thought about the men who didn’t come home, or who returned in bad shape. He realized that any one of them could have been “standing there instead of me.”

To all of those who had a part in organizing that welcome, or who attended Wednesday’s ceremony, “I just want to say thank you,” he said.

The other speakers at Wednesday’s event were Grand Island Mayor Roger Steele, Dan Naranjo and John Larson. Don Shuda was the master of ceremonies, and Pastor Luke Biggs gave the invocation. Doug Brown led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Looking down from above was Hall County Commissioner Gary Quandt, who organized the program. Quandt spent 50 hours on the roof of the courthouse this week. Standing next to him during the ceremony was fellow Hall County Commissioner Pam Lancaster, who sang the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.”

The marchers from the National Guard belong to the 1-376th Aviation Regiment. Carrying the flags were Derek Zulkoski, Brady Masters, Nicki Mihm, Jessica Kinghorn, Justin Chadwick, David Gerhardus and Parker Gilbert.

Marching with them were three members of the United Veterans Honor Guard. Covering the two miles were Pete DeLeon, Ron Callihan and Dan Halverson.

In front of them, as they marched, was a Grand Island Police Department vehicle. In back was a unit from the Hall County Sheriff’s Department.

Wednesday’s program ended with a 21-gun salute, and the sounding of “Taps.”