Letter to the Editor

Visiting veterans share thanks

Thursday, October 2, 2008

To The Citizens of Marked Tree,

On Friday, Sep. 26, I had the privilege of being one of the Vietnam veterans who visited your town. It will long be remembered as one of the finest moments of my life. Your graciousness, generosity, smiles, waves, handshakes, greetings and comments overwhelmed us and the spouses that accompanied us.

I assure you that on our faces were both big smiles and tears of joy. So thank you so much to the police and riders that escorted us to town, to the children waving from the overpass, to the people that lined the streets, to the choral members that sang in the park, to the well wishers that came forward and spoke to us, to the color guard and folks that attended "The Wall", to the parties that prepared and served us dinner: you were all wonderful. Thank you so much!

Dan Bertram,

Lawrenceburg, IN.

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Editor:

Around 250 members of C and E Companies, 1st Air Cavalry Division (Vietnam) descended on your town last Friday, Sept. 26. I can speak for all the veterans that attended The Traveling Wall in Marked Tree when I say-- all our lives are forever changed for the better by the experience we had in your wonderful town.

On your part, it was good old "southern hospitality" at its absolute finest. Your town and the citizens of Poinsett County are consummate American patriots, and "the salt of the earth."

We all now feel as if Marked Tree is our "adopted" home town after the reception we were treated to. It was a TOTAL town effort on your part to greet us, feed us and make us feel so incredibly welcome. You can't possibly understand how important it was for us to finally have that "welcome home parade" which would make us feel like true American heroes, and help bring personal closure to our role in a war, fought around four decades ago in a land very far away.

In my mind, the citizens of Marked Tree and Poinsett County are true, modern-day American heroes.

Sincerely,

Doug Hendrixson

Denver, Colorado

Email: nejjdl@msn.com

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Dear Editor:

My name is Mike LaForce and I am a member of Charlie Co. 2nd of the 5th who experienced the incredible hospitality afforded to me and my comrades by the generous people of Marked Tree, Arkansas. I'm sorry that I don't have the words to express the gratitude I feel for all the acts of kindness shown to us by your wonderful town. Thank you just doesn't seem enough. The people of Marked Tree will always be in my heart.

Sincerely,

Mike LaForce

Dear Editor:

I just wanted to write to your paper to express my deepest and sincere gratitude to ALL the people of Marked Tree and Poinsett County for the loving, warm reception given to the men of Charlie and Echo Companies, 2/5 Cav, 1st Air Cavalry Division last Friday. Words are inadequate to describe the appreciation we all have. From the time the buses picked us up in Memphis, we knew we were in for something special.

We had that wonderful motorcycle escort and the Arkansas State Police. We saw people all along the route, getting out of their cars and waving to us. I was in the lead bus and I have forgotten the bus driver's name, but what a wonderful man he is. We had a big bag of candy to pass out on the parade route so I asked him to let me know when we were about 5 miles out so I could hand out the candy to the others on the bus. His reply was, "You will definitely know when you are 5 miles out. There is an overpass and it will be full of schoolchildren from Tyronza." When we got there, everyone on my bus was completely overwhelmed. The overpass was full of cheering students, waving banners and Flags. It was awesome.

Then, when we got to Marked Tree, What a reception!!! I don't believe anyone was inside. It appeared to us that the entire town had come out and were waving and cheering. The choirs at the Jubilee site were great and most of our pen pals were there. Those young people really made our day.

Then we moved to the Wall for our afternoon ceremony. What an honor to be able to show our respect for that special lady, Mrs. Maxine alley, our Gold Star Mother. Joining us was our Gold Star Wife (Miriam Bradshaw Hunter, widow of Floyd Bradshaw, KIA from C Co, 15 June 1971) and her family. Watching those wonderful ladies place our 1st Cav wreath at the Wall was a humbling experience and reading the names of the 16 men from Poinsett County who are on the Wall made them a part of our brotherhood. We planted a tree at the site of the Wall to help insure that those who have given the ultimate sacrifice will never be forgotten. Something that the citizens of Marked Tree may not know is that we in the reunion were given small packets of dirt that came from Vietnam as a remembrance. All of us decided to empty our packets into the dirt in which the tree was planted.

After our time at the Wall we went to the elementary school for the wonderful dinner prepared by the fire department. I remember commenting to the Mayor that if the fire department was half as good at putting out fires as they were at cooking barbeque, they must not have a lot of fires around there. To those who prepared the food and those who served us, we all say thank you for a truly home cooked meal that was served with love. Also, one of the gentlemen with whom I served in Vietnam, Darvyn Brandt, was the one who took home that beautiful quilt commemorating the weekend.

Friday night we went back to the Wall for our candlelight ceremony where we read the names of the men from C and E Companies and the Medics who paid the ultimate price.

There were a lot of us at the reunion who had been carrying around a lot of heavy burdens for many, many years. Many of us had been to the Wall before and yet, it was not until last Friday night, 26 September 2008, that we were finally able to lay those burdens down. What was it about this trip to the Wall That Heals that enabled us to get rid of those burdens? It was the warm, loving heroes' reception we received from you. One of our reunion attendees summed it up best. Ralph West, who served with C Co in 1965 said that on the bus ride back to the hotel Friday night, one of his fellow comrades from 1965, Dale Shows, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Ralph, how does it feel to be a hero for a day?" And Ralph replied, "It feels good!"

Yes, you all made us feel like heroes. The true heroes are those who we honored at the Wall, those who gave their lives in defense of this country. May God truly bless everyone in Marked Tree and Poinsett County, our new hometown family.

P.S. I almost forgot. Congratulations to the Marked Tree Indians on winning the Homecoming Game!

Saved to Serve,

from Cavalry to Calvary,

John McCorkle

Jacksonville, Ill.

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Dear Editor:

Sincerely,

Mike LaForce