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November 11, 2005Vietnam vets reach outThey're looking out for those who also served
Traverse City resident Kim Cronin fought in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969 as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. He spent four months in the hospital and years in physical therapy after stepping on a land mine in February 1969. It's difficult for the Traverse City man, 55, to discuss details of his time in a foreign land in an unpopular war, but sometimes Jordan shares snippets of those days. "We used to get overrun fairly often, fighting hole-to-hole and hand-to-hand," he said. "I saw a lot of action out in the field. We lost a lot of guys to booby-traps and walked into an ambush once ourselves. There were a lot of incidents." Jordan, quartermaster of the Cherryland Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2780 on Veterans Drive in Traverse City, is proud of his service. He wears a Vietnam veteran's hat and a Marines shirt. Only recently has he sensed an appreciation for his service from people outside the world of the VFW Post. "There is no doubt that ever since the Iraq war started I have gotten a lot of personal thank-yous for serving in Vietnam, more than I ever had," he said. "I can't remember a positive thing when I first came back. I think it has a lot to do with the troops there now." Kim Cronin, 57, who served in the infantry in the U.S. Army, was injured in February 1969 after he stepped on a land mine while on patrol outside the 9th Infantry base camp in Da Nang. Cronin, who still walks with a cane, said the only reason he survived was that he was close to a base and field hospital. Cronin's older brother, Dan, was allowed to leave his Army post in Japan to be by Cronin's bedside for a month as he recovered. "There was a time when some of the guys coming back weren't taken care of as well as you would like to have seen, but things have improved," said Cronin. "I got lucky. A lot of my friends didn't." Jack Pickard, service officer for the VFW Post in Traverse City, said Veterans Day is a way to honor all veterans - past, present and future. Pickard, 56, served in the U.S. Army for nearly two years, including 11 months as a transportation specialist in Vietnam. He was among nine young men in his graduating class at Kingsley High School; he and four others were drafted into the Vietnam War. One of Pickard's classmates, John L. Burgess, went missing on June 30, 1970, killed after the helicopter for which he was crew chief was hit by enemy fire and crashed and burned near the Cambodia-South Vietnam border. Burgess planned to marry Pickard's sister, a fact that made news of his death more difficult after the Army could not recover his body. "It was hard to lose John," he said. "He would have been my brother-in-law. Being from such a small school at the time, we were all close. Four of us came back, but we all remember John." Jordan said he believes Veterans Day offers a mix of emotions, eliciting a recall of tragedy and loss, while offering an opportunity for the public to honor its fighting men and women. "It makes me think of the horrors of war," he said. "It makes me think of the people who didn't make it back and those who still haven't adjusted to everyday life, really. "There are still a lot of people out there still hurting, and that is where we come in as a post. We have to find those people," he said. It is the goal of the VFW Post, said Pickard, to do whatever possible to help soldiers and fellow veterans who struggle to get benefits. Pickard and other members of the post sent nearly 800 supplies boxes to soldiers in Iraq, simple things like beef jerky that they can't get there, and assisted families who have loved ones in the service. When area veterans need help with their benefits, the call often comes to Pickard. He had two cell phone calls minutes apart Wednesday about an appeal under way on behalf of a post member. Pickard acknowledges mixed feelings about the war in Iraq, as do many of the nearly 800 members of the Traverse City VFW post. Views are so divergent, members try to avoid veering off into politically based discussions. "We try to stay away from the political aspects of it," said Pickard. "Everyone has their own opinions. We are there and we have to support the troops. "They have a lot of support now, and I wish we would have had that kind of support when we came back," he said. Jordan said he sees a lot of similarities between what he saw in the front lines of Vietnam and what soldiers in Iraq witness. "The two wars are very parallel as the type of fighting they have to do because they don't know who their enemies are, and we didn't either," he said. Like Pickard, Jordan said he and others are working hard to support troops now deployed and assist them when they return. "They are going through a world of hurt now, and when they come back they are going to need help adjusting," he said. "I may not totally agree with the war, and I don't really, but I am going to support the troops 100 percent and go out of my way to do everything I can for every single troop out there." See Related Stories:
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