Pam Dudding-Burch
Contributing writer
Is there anything one can do to prepare for a battle that portrays horrific death and warfare beyond any imagination possible? Most Veterans answer that question with a definitive “no.”
Is there something a Veteran can do though to ease the pains and memories of war? Billy Lee, a Marine Veteran who fought on the battlefields of Vietnam and several of his brothers of service, think so.
Recently, Lee joined his military brothers of the 2nd Platoon for the 50-year reunion. For the last three decades, they’ve all gotten together at least once every five years. This time around, they toured the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle Virginia.
“When we get together, it is like brothers seeing each other after all these years,” Lee said. “You think you are close to the people you went to school with for 12 years or the people in college, but there is a special bond amongst men who have fought together in combat. You know these men have your back.”
Lee added that they learned more about one another’s lives in 13 months than some discover in a lifetime. “We knew our brothers would come get us alive or dead as our platoon never left a man behind,” he said. “We even lost men going to get the bodies of our brothers. Even now, I would go fight and trust these men with my life even at our age and the shape we are in now.”
Lee served in Vietnam from August 1968 to September 1969 in the Second Squad, Second Platoon Hotel Company, Second Battalion and Third Marine Regiment Third Marine Division. He and Danny McPherson joined the Marines on the ‘buddy plan’ but never saw each other after boot camp. Said Lee: “And I never saw anyone from Craig till I got home.”
Lee has shared his story with many in the community. “We were along the DMZ (The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone). During the Vietnam War, it became important as the battleground and zone established a dividing line between North and South Vietnam as a result of the Indochina War,” he said. “We patrolled along the DMZ and the Laos border, patrolling back and forth trying to catch the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) coming across. They ‘never’ came out of the jungle unless one was wounded or going on R&R.”
Lee’s group started with six members, two of which lived within five miles of each other and didn’t even know it.
“One brother had been going to a 7-Eleven for years after work and would talk with the sales girl who worked there. One day they started talking about Nam and discovered she was married to a friend who was in the platoon with him,” Lee expressed. “They got together, looked up old phone numbers and met with the six men the next year.”
Each year they do the same, and now their roster has grown to about 100 Vietnam Veterans, scattered over the USA.
In the last five years, they have lost eight brothers from agent orange related cancer and almost all of the remaining are 100 percent permanently disabled from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) or other related things from war.
“There was a lot of men who came through our platoons because when you lost a man or they were wounded, we would get replacements or men would go back to the world (America) every 13 months, and we would get a replacement,” Lee explained.
Statistics show that they were the youngest to fight a war – the average age of a Nam Veteran was 19. One man was killed at only 16. “We are a brotherhood unlike any other who has fought in war as we are the only servicemen to return to an ungrateful nation,” Lee explained. “We went and done what our Country asked of us and when we came home, people protested the war, calling us baby killers.”
Some even had high school buddies who wouldn’t talk to them any longer. Many recall people cursing and spitting on them when they went home. Some faced angry crowds at airports. “Instead of meeting us with signs and cheering us, we were met with terrible signs, booing and people cursing us,” Lee said with a sigh. “Some couldn’t find jobs because they were in Nam.”
Many others were denied acceptance into the VFW, often told that they were too “full.” Statistics show that the infantryman in WWII saw an average of 40 days of combat in four years. The average Vietnam infantryman saw 240 days of combat in one year because of the mobility of the helicopter.
Lee shares the heart of many Nam Vets, “I have never met a man who has told me he was a protestor and burned his draft card or ran to Canada. When we came home, you were in Vietnam one day and a week later we were in civilian life at home. We never had a chance to calm down.”
Sadly, it took some of the Vietnam Veterans 25 years before they heard their first “thank you.”
“That was the wonderful thing about little Craig County,” Lee shared. “When you came home to Craig you were a hero. I never heard a bad word when I returned to Craig.”
Lee shared a little of what many have kept inside all these years. “When you tell people things you saw even some psychiatrists look at you like you are lying. That is why most combat Veterans would rather talk to other combat Veterans. That is also why we are a different kind of combat brothers.”
Those statements make it easier to understand some of the mottos of battalions who have served; “Balls of the Corps,” “Whatever it Takes,” “We Quell the Storm and Ride the Thunder,” “Ready for all, Yielding to None!” “Swift, Silent and Deadly” and “If you Wish for Peace, Prepare for War.”
Now that they are getting a little older, plans are to start meeting every year. Niagara Falls is the ideal trip as of right now.
Lee encourages all Veterans to visit Missions BBQ, located at 2229 Colonial Avenue in Roanoke, at Towers Mall between May 14-19 to celebrate Armed Forces Week. Each branch will be recognized throughout the weeks: Monday – Army, Tuesday – Marines, Wednesday – Navy, Thursday – Air Force and Friday – Coast Guard. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., every Veteran will receive a free sandwich. Arrive before noon for the live National Anthem.
“I go to these reunions because these are the closest men I have ever been around,” Lee shared with the deepest sincerity. “We were in a war together, and we continue to love each other as brothers.”
