Paul Lorrain of Lyman enlisted in the Army in 1969 and served for more than a year in Vietnam. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Sometimes it’s a song that brings him back to Vietnam. Other times, it’s a smell or a memory of the friends he served with.
Fifty years later, it all feels like yesterday for Army veteran Paul Lorrain.
For Lorrain and thousands of other Maine veterans who served during the Vietnam War, it’s never far from their minds.
“It’s an experience in my life like none other. You make bonds during that time and a lot of the bonds I made are now gone,” said Lorrain, 73, who owns Funky Bow Brewery in Lyman with his son. “I’m left to carry on the stories.”
As the nation pauses to remember the 50th anniversary of the last American combat troops leaving Vietnam on Wednesday, veterans in Maine are reflecting on their experiences in the war, the often hurtful responses they received at home, and the fight many endured to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and exposure to Agent Orange.
“The war is not over for all of us,” said Ed Harmon, a Navy veteran from Boothbay. “We’ll live that war the rest of our lives.”
Nearly 1,000 ceremonies will be held in towns and cities across the country on Wednesday. It’s an anniversary the country is commemorating for 13 years – equal to the amount of time the U.S. spent building up its combat presence in Vietnam – to ensure that everyone who served receives the thanks and “welcome home” that so many veterans of that era did not get.
Of the nearly 9 million Americans who served during the Vietnam War, more than 48,000 are Mainers. The names of the 343 who died are etched on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Eleven Maine servicemen remain missing in action.
Conrad Letellier sits in a corner of his house in Biddeford that he has dubbed his ‘man cave’ with a wall of war memorabilia. Letellier, 73, joined the Marines in 1967 and was sent to Vietnam, where he was wounded twice in combat. He received two Purple Hearts and a Maine Silver Star for his service. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
A CALL TO SERVICE
The first U.S. troops went to South Vietnam in the 1950s. The presence increased in the early 1960s when President John F. Kennedy was advised to build up American military and economic aid to help confront the Viet Cong. In March 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent combat forces into battle in Vietnam.
Johnson’s decision had solid support from the public at the time, but in the years that followed, opposition grew and bitterly divided Americans. A massive Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon in 1967 drew more than 35,000 demonstrators.
Americans were watching a war play out on television for the first time and it contributed to the opposition, said Roger Stevens, an Air Force veteran who is now post commander of VFW Post 2197 in Topsham.
The anti-war movement, veterans say, resulted in an unfair backlash against soldiers that left a lasting legacy of pain that many still struggle to overcome.
But while they were in Vietnam, their focus was on doing the job they were trained to do and making it home alive.
“We didn’t ask to go. We did what was asked of us. Many of our brothers and sisters didn’t make it back,” said Joseph Armstrong, an Army veteran from Sanford who has been haunted by his experiences for 50 years.
Conrad Letellier of Biddeford was 18 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Within a week of his arrival in Vietnam in 1968, his battalion was in the middle of the Tet Offensive, a series of attacks by North Vietnam-affiliated troops and the Viet Cong that changed the perception of the war. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
During the Vietnam War era, the military drafted 2.2 million men to serve. Draft evasion was a common practice, with thousands heading to Canada to avoid being called up. More than half of the 27 million men eligible for the draft were deferred, exempted or disqualified.
But others felt called to voluntarily enlist.
Conrad Letellier of Biddeford was 18 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Within a week of his arrival in Vietnam in 1968, his battalion was in the middle of the Tet Offensive, a series of attacks by North Vietnam-affiliated troops and the Viet Cong that changed the perception of the war.
Letellier, now 73, was twice awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he received during the war. During one attack, he lost everyone on his team. He came home to find that few of his neighbors seemed to respect soldiers.
“I had catcalls, I was called a baby killer,” he said. “It was kind of heartbreaking.”
When Harmon, 74, came home from his fourth of six tours in Vietnam, he was spat on as he stood in an airport in uniform, a sniper rifle at his side.
“It was 40 years later before someone extended their hand to say thank you,” he said. “That was the biggest hurt.”
A LASTING LEGACY
In the decades since the war, Vietnam veterans have relied on each other for support and understanding. They also stepped up advocacy work and efforts to create a legacy of service for other veterans and the community.
Many dealt with lingering combat injuries, nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder at a time when it was difficult to access the services they earned and needed.
The biggest plight of veterans of that era is exposure to Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide that caused cancer and other illnesses, Harmon said this week while meeting with fellow Vietnam veterans at the Mid-Coast Veterans Council in Brunswick. For years, no one wanted to talk about the defoliant’s harmful impact, but that has recently changed, he said.
“The thing with us is we’re still serving. We’re still serving our community, we’re still serving our brother veterans,” said Harmon, who helps other veterans navigate the VA system and builds housing for homeless veterans.
Conrad Letellier, 73, displays one of two Purple Hearts he received, left, and a Maine Silver Star for his service in the Vietnam War. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Along with the acknowledgment of the physical impacts of war, there has been a cultural shift in how veterans are recognized. That is especially true for the women who served in Vietnam, but they still deserve more acknowledgment of the trauma they endured, said Stevens, from the VFW in Topsham.
During the war, more than 265,000 American women served in the military, while another 11,000 women served in Vietnam, nearly all as volunteer nurses, according to the Veterans Administration.
“They had to sit with someone while they died, then get up and go to the next person,” Stevens said. “They were incredible people and they deserve a lot more recognition than they get.”
‘WE WERE ALL DIFFERENT’
When President Richard Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 he ordered the withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
On the day the last American combat troops left, Navy veteran Jim Eldridge was working in a small city in Massachusetts when sirens and horns sounded to mark the moment.
Paul Lorrain of Lyman enlisted in the Army in 1969 and served for more than a year in Vietnam. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Eldridge, who served two tours from 1968 to 1970, remembers being glad it was over.
“We were all different after we came back,” he said.
Half a century later, many Vietnam veterans feel strongly that other veterans do not face the same hardships they did, said Gary W. Sweeney, a Marine Corps veteran from Standish who spent 13 months in Vietnam in 1966-67. He is glad that veterans in the generations after him have access to more support and were celebrated as they returned from war.
Sweeney appreciates the thanks that he now receives when people learn he served in Vietnam.
“We refuse to be forgotten,” he said.
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