From Deseret News archives:
Healing, tears at Viet vets memorial wall
Veterans from several wars and every branch of the armed services were welcomed Thursday morning by Provo Mayor Lewis K. Billings at opening ceremonies of the moving wall's visit to Provo. It will be in Provo through Monday morning.
Guest speaker George Wahlen, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and World War II veteran, spoke to the crowd of his experiences at Iwo Jima, detailed in the book "The Quiet Hero."
Punctuating his speech with "I'll always remember," Wahlen said his military service began at age 17 at Hill Field, overseeing a group of five men.
He spent time in the Navy and served in the Marine Corps as a medical corpsman at Iwo Jima.
"It was my responsibility to take care of casualties," Wahlen said. "It's the first time I prayed in my whole life. It was a scary experience."
Whalen recounted enduring machine gun fire and grenades being lobbed at him. He continued to crawl into holes to bandage soldiers and give morphine to the wounded.
"I kept telling myself, 'I'm a corpsman — I can't quit,"' Wahlen said. He was injured several times on Iwo Jima and, upon receiving his medal, he put it away, not even telling his wife. She found out about it when he was invited to Washington, D.C., where he said "a farm boy from Utah shook hands with President Truman."
Wahlen went on to serve 20 years in the Army, then worked for the Veterans Administration for 14 more years. The VA hospital in Salt Lake City now bears his name.
Thursday morning's ceremonies included the national anthem played by the Timpview High School band and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The band also played the songs of each branch of the armed services as veterans stood and were recognized with applause from an appreciative crowd.
The gratitude of those in attendance was vastly different from the reception some veterans received when returning from the Vietnam War.
"A young blond woman came up to me in the San Francisco airport when I returned from duty (in Vietnam)," said Gerald Hubbard, sponsor and organizer for the wall coming to Provo. "She spat on me and called me a baby-killer."
Confused, Hubbard didn't know what to think about the young woman's words and actions.
Debbie Smith, a mental-health therapist for the Veterans Administration in Ogden, visited the wall after the ceremony and spoke of the deep mental trauma inflicted on those who serve and protect our country.
She said some vets get nervous at red lights, remembering ambushes on convoys and that large crowds are hard for some vets to handle.
