Reunion5

The story "Never forget," ran in the Nov. 11 Henderson/Green Valley View. Most of the men who attended the Henderson reunion met in Vietnam while serving at LZ Baldy and Hawk Hill.

VETERANS DAY: Never forget

Vietnam veterans reunite in Henderson, vow to keep memories alive

By LAUREN ROMANO

VIEW STAFF WRITER

The group has met once a year for five years at a different location. Henderson resident Gary Weaver was host of this year's reunion.

More than five years ago, Roger T. Coffin and Darrell Barnes began looking for friends whom they hadn't seen in almost 40 years.

In September, the U.S. Army Company C, 23rd Medical Battalion Americal Division Republic of South Vietnam, held a reunion in Henderson with 45 people from all over the country.

"I was so excited when I heard about the first reunion," said Gary Weaver, a Henderson resident. "We develop a bond that's hard to explain, and to be able to renew that bond after so many years, that was amazing."

The men, who were barely past their teenage years when they met on LZ Baldy and Hawk Hill, Vietnam, have been getting together once a year for five years in a different part of the country to remember their time in the Army and catch up on their lives since then.

"It's a chance to relax and reminisce about the whole experience," said Coffin, co-host of the reunion. "There were people we were really fond of who didn't make it home. We want to keep those people and their names alive as long as we can."

Coffin, of Indiana, participated in the ROTC while he was in college and was commissioned as a second lieutenant when he joined the military. He served from August 1968 until August 1970 as a medical service corps officer.

While serving in Vietnam, he managed the emergency room where U.S. and enemy soldiers would be taken for medical treatment.

"I saw very traumatic amputations and belly wounds with their insides piled up like spaghetti on top of them," Coffin said. "All the people killed in action were put in plastic body bags in the building next to us."

The 2008 reunion included members of the medical ambulance detachment, which was a crew that would spend a few days with the medics while they were flying missions off their base. The ambulance group would bring battlefield casualties to Weaver, Coffin and the other men in their unit. "We were very close to them and went through a lot together," Coffin said.

Weaver said that unless you're there and see what's going on, it's hard to comprehend. So to be able to talk about the experiences in Vietnam with other veterans has helped him deal with his time there.

"It was a healing process for me because I had kept the gruesome situation we were forced to be in at the time inside for so many years," Weaver said.

Weaver was a sergeant first class while serving in Vietnam. He worked as a senior medic and retired from the Army after 20 years.

The group that gets together for the reunions keeps growing. Coffin said Vietnam was a war in which troops didn't go over as units. Every time a soldier was injured or killed, he was replaced by another.

"Today, units deploy as a unit and come back as a unit," Coffin said.

The retired medics are trying to find anyone they can. They found about 45 men they knew in Vietnam before Weaver began a Web site to continue the search. The Web site, www.lzbaldymedic.com, gives the group a way to communicate and allows new members to join the conversation. More than 100 people have signed the guest book, and the site has gotten over 10,000 hits.

"Whenever you see someone from Vietnam, even if you didn't know them there, it's a welcome home," Weaver said. "We weren't really welcomed home when we came home, so it's nice that we can be now."

Weaver said he feels the bond even with veterans of other wars, including the men and women returning from Iraq.

"One thing we can look back on and say, the reunions have made the last five years of our life so exciting," Coffin said. "Every time we see a new face, it's great. We're really enjoying it."

Contact Henderson View reporter Lauren Romano at lromano@viewnews.com or 477-3839.