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LZ Peace Memorial

Merry Christmas
It was colder that the proverbial "you know what" but I went to the LZ Peace Memorial on Christmas day. I posted some pictures and a video on our SmugMug page. It's a 3-minute video with no audio.
Have a Merry Christmas and the Holiday Season.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR
Our Chaplain, Angel 6. and his wife provided us with a poem and a Christmas video that features some of our brothers and members of the American military who fought in the Vietnam War. Rockford veterans and supporters show up at near the :50 second mark but you should watch the whole thing. See the link to the video below or click here.
This is Angel 6 writing. The poem itself came from a desire to express sentiments I had been feeling for years, ever since the day the Vietnam Veterans Honor Society and the Smoke Brothers first took me under their wing upon my return from Iraq. Vietnam Vets truly were my heroes while I was growing up. For them to look me in the eye and call me "brother" meant more to me than I could possibly express!
Here's the poem.
I came home.
You were the tip of the spear making sure I was welcomed home!
You looked me in the eyes and called me brother! The healing began.
Vietnam Vet, you are my hero! Vietnam Vet, I thank Almighty God, you are my brother!
Angel 6 continues. My wife came up with the video idea. Our church for more than half a century has put on a summer music concert. It has always had patriotic elements. For years the only theme was in fact patriotism, the whole God & Country thing. My wife now oversees the concert. She was familiar with my poem. She presented her video idea. It grew from there. One of her colleagues came to a Smoke at the LZ with his cameras. He then produced the video for our 2022 Summer Music Celebration.
Here's the link to the video. It's on a Googe photo page.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nvhb_g-vxM2tGCWht_g8tqnLExf9329K/view
Blessings,
Steve Cooper (Angel 6)
"... whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Hey, Blackjack 6, thanks for the door. "Capt. Ken"
Thanks to all everyone who braved the cold, 40 mile an hour wind on Veterans Day. Click this link to see almost 200 pictures and one or two good videos. It was nice to see and hear Mayor Tom McNamara. Here's a little known fact: his father, John McNamara, former Mayor of Rockford served in Vietnam as an Army Officer. Go Papa, and God Bless them all. "Capt. Ken"
Please join us at 11:00 a.m. Friday, November 11, 2022 when we honor all our Veterans. We'll be at Midway Village, LZ Peace Memorial, 6799 Guilford Road and we hope to see you. Thank you for your support and THANK YOU veterans for your service. See you Friday morning. God Bless the United States of America.
The 2022 Fall VetsRoll, sponsored by Finnegans' RV Center, was a great success. Here's a link to the videos from channel 23, WIFR. Welcome Home, "Skipper" and "Admiral" and "Tango" and "Ramrod." Thanks to Aaron and Andy.
Thanks again from Nick Parnello, aka, Blackjack 6 to all those who came out August 7, 2022 for the LZ Purple Heart Memorial dedication. If you have any pictures please email them to FlyNickNow@gmail.com. Click here to go to SmugMug to see the 158 pictures and videos we took.
Sept. 24, 2022 Pictures from our LZ Smoker Brothers "Capt. Ken" Nelson, Tango. Ramrod and others took of Sgt. Flag's tour of the Peace Memorial and the new Purple Heart Memorial. What a great tribute to those wounded in combat and all who honorably served. We are so blessed to have all those who volunteer and take care of the LZ Peace Memorial. Every one of them. And a big HOORAH to all our Smoke Brothers.
The pictures of the unveiling of the Purple Heart Memorial will be online pretty soon. Thanks for your patience. Here's the link to all our pictures.
OPERATION LZ PURPLE. The LZ Smoke Brothers are proud to announce the birth of a new memorial at the LZ Peace Memorial and you're invited to attend. As always, Gold Star Mother Andie White will be with us. Please join with us at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, August 7, 2022. We're located at the northwest corner of the Midway Village campus, over by the Central Christian Church's parking lot. Here's a link to everything you ever wanted to know about the Purple Heart but were afraid to ask. Remember, that's Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 2:00 in the afternoon. Thank you for caring and for your support of all veterans.
Daniel "Seabee 1" Burd, a Vietnam veteran and Navy Seabee, died at home on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Nick Parnello gives everyone a nickname so Dan was appropriately named "Seabee 1". Seabee truly was Number 1 in everything he did. Whether he was visiting and giving communion to the sick, or helping out at St. Rita's Catholic Church, or doing his thing at the LZ Peace Memorial, Seabee put his heart and soul into everything he did.
Seabee was one of the original LZ Smoke Brothers. These are the folks who take care of the LZ Peace Memorial and prepare it for military ceremonies on Memorial Day, Flag Day, Agent Orange Ceremony and Veterans Day. To many of us, Seabee was the Smoke Brothers chief cook and bottle washer. He loved grilling brats and he made a pretty good cup of what he called Navy coffee.
Some of us were fortunate to have visited Dan the day before he passed away. We'd like to thank his wife, Lori and son, Todd "Senior Chief" for allowing us to be with Seabee one last time.
Funeral services will be at Fitzgerald Funeral Home, 1860 S. Mulford Rd., Rockford, Illinois on, Wednesday, July 6, between 5 and 7 pm. Here's the link to Dan's obituary at Fitzgerald Funeral home.
Flag Day 2022 at the LZ Peace Memorial. We have a video and slideshow of how we respectfully and reverently retire Old Glory on Flag Day 2022 at the LZ Peace Memorial. Mr. Marine explains why the flag is folded 13 times. Then he picks up one of 13 folded flags and hands it to Charlie 6, who along with Skipper unfolds the flag and they place it in the Ceremonial Burning device. They salute the flag as it is retired and the ashes are buried later in a solemn ceremony. Thank you for coming to help us honor Old Glory.
This Flag Day was one of the hottest ever. One of the Vietnam veterans said, "If you think this was hot, you should go back to Vietnam, where it was always stinking hot, with bullets and death in the air. The Memorial Day story & slideshow follows this story.
Below are two links to the pictures Capt. Ken took, and the beautiful cards we gave out.
Pictures of our Flag Retirement Ceremony held here at the LZ Peace Memorial on Flag Day 2022
PIctures of the handout cards we always hand out.
You can either look at the slideshow above or the individual pictures below have captions.
A day in the life of "Boonie" Dahl, Republic of S. Vietnam, March 1969.
South China Sea. We were pulling Fire support that day to protect fire support bases that provided Artillery barges. Was very, very, very, wet place. The ground was never dry.
This was the actual funeral for one of our guys. We tried to make them when we were on the ship and not in the Field which wasn't to often. --Boonie
No Hollywood Grunts
Dick "Boonie" Dahl first day aboard the U.S.S. Colleton and in the field.
On a hot humid morning in March 1969, I arrived in Dong Tam, South Vietnam. Headquarters assigned me to Alpha Company 3rd. Battalion 60th infantry 9th Infantry Division, The unit was part of the Mekong Delta Mobile Riverine Force, and I was waiting for a small boat to take me out to a larger ship named the U.S.S. Colleton where my unit was located. I boarded the small boat and we made our way up the narrow muddy Mekong River. We arrived at the hull of the Colleton about an hour later. The Colleton was a huge ship, and it was the ugliest ship I had ever seen. It was olive drab green, and it resembled a huge green Dumpster sitting in the middle of a river.
The Cotteton was anchored in the middle of the Mekong River near a village named My Tho. I wondered what the government had done with all those beautiful aircraft carriers that I had seen in the enlistment brochures. I grabbed my gear, and I stumbled onto the pontoon that was attached to the side of the ship. The small boat left, and I was standing in the middle of this pontoon wondering what to do next. I noticed that there were numerous Navy personnel moving about the ship, and I was in the Army.
I was rather confused, and I thought that maybe I was dropped off at the wrong place. I picked up my gear, and I approached one of the sailors and asked him if he knew where Alpha Company 9th Infantry was located. He did not say a word he just smirked and pointed toward a door on the side of the ship. He made me feel as if I had the plague. I opened the door to the sound of Johnny Cash music and a private first class sitting at a small desk.
He looked as if he had just woken up. I told the clerk I was eager to join the unit so I could start doing my part for my country. He snickered and just shook his head. “Let me see your orders,” he said. I was starting to think nothing was too important around here, and it was evident he did not care if I existed.
He said, “Report to the 3rd platoon right down those steps, and find a guy named Spanky” he mumbled. I now was under the impression that maybe I had come all this way to join up with The Little Rascals. I was a typical patriotic l9-year-old kid who wanted to serve his country, and I wanted to be a soldier I was living kind of in a fantasy world when I got to Nam. I was thinking that to go to war was the same thing as watching the Sunday morning movie.
I thought of John Wayne as the courageous marine that seemed invincible, and Audie Murphy who acted in war and cowboy movies doing heroic acts. He actually was a war hero. Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier during World War Two. I guess I wanted to experience that. They seemed like real men. I went down the steps and met Sgt. Spanky; he looked like death warmed over.
I became an active part of the war a couple of days later. We were flying by helicopter to a village called Ben Tre.” I remember while flying in the chopper my heart was pumping fast as I looked at the other guys who had been there longer than me, and they looked back and shook their heads as if I was some kind of a stupid joke. To them I was just another new guy who did not know anything, and they knew I might do something stupid when we landed. They did not want to be anywhere near me.
As we started to descend into the rice paddy gunships sprayed the area with machine gun fire and what seemed to be multiple colored rockets. I thought this might be what was known as the twilight’s last gleaming.
One of the guys looked at me and told me to do whatever he did after we jumped off and if I did maybe I might live. I thought that was a good reason to follow what he said. As we got off the choppers, I was very clumsy and the blades from the choppers created a din, and the water lying in the rice paddy swirled around as if you were in some type of typhoon/ I felt stupid, this was not like television at all. The choppers were almost out of sight and I now could hear. I heard explosions and gunfire, and I knew that we had been ambushed. I heard someone yell the word “Medic.” I was really scared now I guess I was just being human. I ran over to where the medic was as he ran around feverishly overwhelmed by the many wounded. He had a piece of brown medical tubing hanging out of his mouth, and he had tears streaming down his face. He was looking at me like what should I do next.
I never saw soldiers on television cry or look scared I guess this was reality. We patched the wounded up the best we could and put them on medivac choppers. Some of them waved as the choppers left, and some of them just lay there motionless. I never found out if they lived or died. I know a part of me died that day.
It’s 30 years since I was in Vietnam, and I realized that war was no game. I also learned that television was not reality. The “Grunt” or infantry soldier was expendable in Vietnam. He was used to flush out the enemy, and then the artillery and air strikes finished the job.
Today you will see the military using its air power and artillery first. They have learned to be more cautious with human lives. I am glad the military is being more protective of our soldiers, and remembering they are human and all have family or someone that waits for their return.
-Dick “Boonie” Dahl

One of the families we met during our tour of duty

Boonie on PRC 25 radio waiting for Air and Artillery information. This was not a good day. We bombed them good that day.

Picture of me with my platoon at Fort Ord in California. I was a Drill Instructor when I came back from Nam. I was there 28 months and then I got out of the service

This was a picture of me going to a funeral, in the picture below, on the flight deck of the USS Colleton the LST. We slept on when not in the field. Was run by the Navy a group called Riv





This picture was taken by a combat photographer near Can Tho South Vietnam in the Mekong Delta

Me and my M-60 Machine Gun also have 300 rounds of extra ammo. I am sitting on the pontoon that is hooked to a large ship known and the USS. Colleton. This is the LST we slept on.





