Lenox — From the start of the stirring July 11 tribute to the final rendition of Taps about an hour later, not a dry eye could be found among the scores of guests and family members witnessing the opening ceremonies commemorating the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall that landed in Lenox.
Coordinated by former State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – 3rd Berkshire District), the exhibit is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on July 11 and 12, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 13, with a closing ceremony set for 3 p.m. The three-foot replica of the Washington, D.C., original memorial is fittingly stationed at the Lenox War Memorial Baseball Field, 65 High Street.
Speakers acknowledged the lack of parades and fanfare honoring returning veterans from the war amid the U.S. government’s controversial policies. About 2.7 million service members served in the Vietnam War among the five military branches.
“I think it’s so important to recognize the service and sacrifice of these Vietnam Veterans,” Pignatelli told The Berkshire Edge. “How they were treated when they returned home in America at the end of that war was really embarrassing and deplorable.”
According to Pignatelli, 390 Vietnam veterans die daily in this country, and the average age of these veterans is 78 years old. “Because of what they were exposed to during combat, they’re not having the long lives that the World War II veterans had,” he said. “So, this is a way to say, ‘thank you,’ to them.”
The Memorial Wall inscriptions number 58,281 service men and women who died because of the Vietnam War, with 27 listings commemorating Berkshire County residents: Kevin Gary Aldam (Pittsfield), Gary Thomas Benjamin (Berkshire Village), Francis Henry Bissaillon (Williamstown), David Christopher Borey (Pittsfield), Michael James Casey (Dalton), William Francis Coakley (Lenox), Paul Allan Connor (Becket), Peter Allan Cook (North Adams), Paul Marvin Cronk (Ashley Falls), Charles Henry Cummings (Lee), Richard Shirley Davis Jr. (North Adams), Peter Wellesley Foote (North Adams), John Peter Hartladge III (Savoy), Tristan Whitney Hayes (Williamstown), James Calvin Henneberry (Pittsfield), Charles Egbert Jaquins (Housatonic), Edward Carl Jarvis (Pittsfield), Paul Steven Krzynowek (Housatonic), Howard Henry Luscier (Cheshire), John Joseph Malloy (Great Barrington), Patrick John Muraca (Dalton), John Lionel Pratt (Pittsfield), Russell Rene Roulier (Adams), George Jerry Shufelt (Pittsfield), James Michael Termini (Lee), Michael Cornelius Whalen (Lee), and Chester Lawrence (Lawren) Witanek Jr. (Cheshire).
Eight nurses are inscribed to the tribute as well.
According to Wall Manager Doc Russo, the traveling feature was originally built for a veterans reunion in his hometown of Melbourne, Fla., but word spread of the endeavor and the founding group was asked to take the honorarium through the country so others could pay homage to fallen heroes. That was 18 years ago, and Russo has been driving the Memorial Wall to its numerous sites ever since.
The group receives about 300 requests annually but pares that down to only 18 events, traveling with a two-person crew nearly 50,000 miles from April to November, he said.
“I have a cousin who’s on the [Memorial] Wall,” said Russo, who served as a Navy hospital foreman stationed with the Marines. “It’s near and dear to my heart. I made a promise to his mom years ago that as long as I was able, he wouldn’t be forgotten.”
This week, the local endeavor had a one-mile-plus escort from Lee to the Lenox site, with a three-hour task undertaken by about 20 volunteers to put it together.
Pittsfield resident and 25-year U.S. Navy veteran Rob Fowler agreed that the Memorial Wall tribute helps right a wrong that occurred years ago. “I just feel like the Vietnam Vets deserve that respect,” he said. “They didn’t quite get that when they came home, so any chance I get to honor the Vietnam [veterans], I do.”
When he was 19 years old, Fowler’s commanding officers were veterans of that war, escaping enemy lines as heroes. For Fowler, the opportunity to “highlight the sacrifices the men in uniform make for this country resonates with every generation.”
Otis’s Whitney Tomlino did just that. With her two young daughters, Colbie and Carson, donning identical patriotic dresses and hair ribbons, the Lenox native pointed out the inscriptions on the Memorial Wall to her children. “It’s an amazing thing to come and be a part of today,” Tomlino said. “We’re here to support.”
Pittsfield Veteran of Foreign Wars (VFW) Commander and Korean War veteran Arnie Perras spent a few minutes alone at the wall before the program began. With his phone, he carefully took a photo of Kevin Aldam’s inscription.
“I knew him from when he was a young boy,” Perras said of Aldam, with tears in his eyes. “It’s a very infamous war as it turned out to be.”
Aldam served one tour before he was killed while on his second tour, he said. “[The Memorial Wall] is very meaningful and, I’d like to say, it’s sad,” Perras said.
The presentation featured a table for one, described by Vietnam Veteran Tyrone Bellinger as indicative of those “who have endured and may still be enduring the agonies of pain, depravation, and imprisonment.” His moving address paid tribute to the more than 138,000 prisoners of war and those soldiers missing in action since World War I, “to know that they are never forgotten.” “We call your attention to this small table which occupies a place of dignity and honor,” Bellinger said.
A video of Bellinger’s presentation can be found below.
Pittsfield Chapter 65 Vietnam Veterans Association President Woody Vaspra, who served in the Air Force as a B-52 pilot with more than 250 missions, told of his roommate who was shot down while on active duty. He told officials to only let him know if they found his roommate alive. Vaspra was not contacted again, and years later, in 1982, the Memorial Wall was dedicated. However, he chose not to find his colleague’s name among the inscriptions. Ultimately, Vaspra gave in and, with his wife alongside, he found the engraving he needed for closure.
“The experience of battle does not go away,” Vaspra said. “You just have to learn how to live with it for the rest of your life. This tribute is about remembering what the Vietnam veterans, our brothers and sisters, did for their country. They gave their lives, whether they died in battle or came home and died later, they paid the ultimate price.”
Local Dennis O’Brien received his draft notice on his 19th birthday in 1965 and served in Vietnam for the following 13 months. “And on my 20th birthday, I crawled out of a fighting hole… looking right into North Vietnam,” he said.
O’Brien spoke of those memorialized “who never got to live their lives” as well as their devastated families. “It comes [down] to four words: Freedom is not free,” he said, pointing to the Memorial Wall. “And there’s the cost, right there.”
Berkshire native Michael Fabrizio, a rising star in the Tennessee music scene, provided original songs for the occasion, including “All Our Heroes.” Berkshire County veteran Skip Hoshkier offered his poem “From the Other Side,” depicting an encounter between a Vietnam veteran’s family at the Memorial Wall from their fallen soldier’s viewpoint.
Pittsfield’s Bill Sturgeon, also a decorated Vietnam veteran, recognized the Gold Star families in attendance, families who live with loss every day. He advocated for guests to “take a moment and view this wall, just the immensity of it.”
About 61 percent of service members killed in Vietnam were younger than 21 years of age, and the average age of a service member killed in Vietnam is 23.1 years of age, Sturgeon said. “They gave the ultimate sacrifice,” he said of the more than 58,000 names engraved. “Think about that, bigger than most cities and towns in Berkshire County.”
Sturgeon urged patrons to recognize the traveling Memorial Wall site as “sacred ground” and acknowledged that many families of Vietnam servicemen and -women who died in battle are left with only their last photograph—a high school yearbook picture. “This Wall represents those who gave it all,” he said. “Yes, they will be forever 19 [years old].”
