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Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall sends message from the past
By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com
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During the Vietnam War, family and friends often found themselves on opposing sides of the debate over whether America should be fighting in Southeast Asia.

But the divisive conflict brought Duane, Richard and Ronnie Maaks closer together. They each served in the war. Years later, they can share war experiences in ways only veterans, and brothers, can.

They were sent to Vietnam at different times. But, Duane Maaks said, they will probably be together when they visit the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, which will be on the grounds of the Eastview Christian Church and Normal Community High School from Thursday to Monday.

The visit coincides with the faith-based Outdoor Adventure Exposition at the site Friday and Saturday. (See story in today’s GO! section.)

The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is a scaled-down version of the permanent Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Both list the names of about 58,000 American servicemen and women who died in Vietnam.

Of the three sons of Mildred and Marion Maaks of Lincoln who served in the U.S. Army, Richard Maaks, 60, of Normal came closest to earning his own place on the Wall. He spent 11 months in military hospitals recovering from near-fatal wounds.

Nearly four decades later, he still has surgery from time to time to remove shrapnel. X-rays that reveal the many metal fragments still in his body are used as examples to train technicians at a Twin City hospital, he said.

“I feel sorry for my mother,” he said. “She had three sons go to war, and she worried about each one of them. She had three years of worrying.”

None of the Maaks brothers has been to the Vietnam memorial in the nation’s capital. Richard Maaks visited another scaled-down version of the Wall when it stopped in Bloomington a few years ago. He looks forward to viewing the one arriving this week.

For him, the Wall sends a message from the past that remains relevant today.

“As human beings, we have to learn to get along,” he said. “Hopefully, the same thing will happen after this Iraq deal. We have to all learn to get along or we will always be at war. … I have sadness over all the young fellas who lost their lives. It happens in any war. We’ve got one going on now, and it affects me. You feel for the families of the ones who were lost in the prime of their lives.”

Duane Maaks, 62, of Charleston, the oldest of the clan, has visited traveling Walls three times. Each trip has given him a chance to mull the decisions he made as a young man after he attended officers’ candidate school and became the first lieutenant of a mobile artillery unit.

“The Wall — you have to go to reassure yourself, was it the right thing to do at the time? Yes, it was,” he said. “I’d do it again.

“A visit to the Wall, it’s a time of reflection, probably a release of a lot of emotion. That probably hasn’t been done (enough). … When we originally got back, it wasn’t something a lot of people wanted to talk about. … I think it’s just a period of time, you know, that was kind of tough for the people who were there, and it was tough for the people who were back home. You go and let out a lot of emotions.”

Retired Bloomington police officer Ronnie Maaks, who turns 59 this month, spent his time in Vietnam in the intelligence division at Army Headquarters. He visited another version of the traveling Wall in Pontiac several years ago, but he passed on seeing the one that previously came to the Twin Cities.

“I’m not sure why,” he said. “But I’ll go when it’s back again. It’s a very sobering, somber moment.”

Memories don’t fade

Duane Maaks went to Vietnam first. He had graduated from New Holland-Middletown High School in Logan County and spent two years at Illinois State University. A student deferment was not an absolute protection from the draft.

“Drinking beer was more fun than studying. That’s what happened,” he said.

His stint in the war zone lasted from early 1968 to early 1969. His job was to direct artillery fire in support of infantry units during the day and to harass the enemy at night. The North Vietnamese fired back on occasion. He remembers when a mortar round destroyed the mess tent not long before the soldiers were scheduled to be inside eating Thanksgiving dinner.

Sleep was spoiled when enemy soldiers tossed explosive satchels into the compound.

“They were close,” he said.

Duane thinks his time in Vietnam may have overlapped Richard’s arrival by about a week, but they didn’t see each other. Richard, now a warehouse manager for Hermes Service in Bloomington, was shipped to a remote infantry unit in the jungle somewhere near the Cambodian border.

“They just flew me out in a helicopter, and there I was. I could have been anywhere, and I wouldn’t have known the difference. Once a week, they’d come and fly us somewhere else,” he said.

His days were spent roaming the bush.

“Don’t make it exciting anymore than it was. Most of it was boring except for fighting your way through the jungle and watching what you did. You never know what you are going to run into out there … booby traps, snakes, a little bit of everything,” he said.

Nights were spent sleeping on the ground in foxholes. His arrival in-country had coincided with the rainy season. He’d put twigs on the ground, wrap himself in a poncho and try to nap between rainstorms.

Third brother goes

Back home, Ronnie had enlisted after he was notified of his impending draft. He volunteered for Vietnam, hoping military rules that forbid two brothers from serving in harm’s way at the same time might get Richard out of the jungle.

But the enemy didn’t give the plan time to work.

Less than two months after he arrived, Richard was guarding a helicopter as it landed to deliver a rare hot breakfast. He couldn’t hear anything above the engine noise. He only saw two puffs of smoke in the distance.

“All of a sudden, I was on the ground. Blood was all around.”

The blood was his.

“I got hit in the legs, the face, the stomach. I was still awake … I went into shock later on. I remember them throwing me on the helicopter,” he said.

He lost his spleen. His liver was damaged. He nearly died.

“It was pretty damn close,” he said. “They were going to send my mom and dad to Japan (where he was in the hospital) because they thought I wouldn’t make it home. When I went over, I weighed 180 pounds. When I got to Scott Air Force Base, I weighed 98 pounds. My mom and dad didn’t recognize me. … They walked on by my bed.”

Ronnie spent his time in Vietnam assembling weekly briefing books for commanders. The information inside was based on captured documents, bits of information gleaned from prisoners and other sources. He was back in the United States to drive his parents to the hospital to see his brother.

“I’m not so sure they were ready for what they saw. He was looking bad,” Ronnie said.

Something gained

Each of the Maaks brothers took something away from Vietnam.

Duane used his officer training to become a supervisor in the manufacturing field. He recently was laid off from his job in a cutback caused by the current economic downturn. He hopes to find something soon. Or, maybe he’ll just retire, he said.

Ronnie was among returning veterans who were sought by local governments to become law enforcement officers. He spent 26 years with the Bloomington Police Department before retiring nine years ago. He works part time for the McLean County Sheriff’s Department at the jail.

Richard had war-related surgery in the 1980s when he owned a newsstand in downtown Bloomington. A thumbnail-sized piece of metal had moved too close to his spine. He also had a BB-sized piece removed from his gum not long ago.

The brothers are united in their belief that their time in Vietnam was important.

“I don’t regret going,” Ronnie said, echoing the comments of the other two. “Had things been different, I probably wouldn’t have. But it was one of those things. A young kid in his early 20s, if there is something like that going on, you should probably do your time.”

No matter what feelings linger about Vietnam, the Maaks brothers agree the permanent Wall and the traveling Walls offer places to heal and come to grips with the reality of war.

“It (a visit to the Wall) is a way to honor the people who are doing it now and a chance for everyday citizens who did not go before to honor the ones who did,” Duane said. “It may not have been the thing everybody wanted, but it was something that happened.”

“I’m proud of my country, and I’m glad to do it,” added Richard. “But we all go into it as young men. We all think we are not going to get killed. But some will. It’s just the way it is.”



The Vietnam Traveling Wall Memorial



What: A 3/5ths scale replica of the permanent Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

When: 24 hours a day from 1 p.m. Thursday through 7 a.m. June 30.

Where: On the grounds of Eastview Christian Church, Normal, and Normal Community High School

Highlights: Brandon Howard performing “Soldier on the Wall at 1, 3 and 4:45 p.m. Thursday, Blackhawk helicopter landing about 3 p.m.; Opening ceremonies, 5 p.m. Thursday, including fly-over of C-130s and F-16s, keynote speech by Dennis Thompson, Vietnam vet and former state commander of Disabled American Veterans; performances at 7 p.m. Friday by Sound of Illinois Chorus, candlelight reading of names; Closing ceremonies, 7 p.m. Sunday with performances by His Voice, a 21-gun salute, retiring of colors.

Cost: Admission is free

What else: The appearance is in conjunction with the family-oriented Outdoor Adventure Exposition hosted by the faith-based outdoor group Jeremiah Sportsmen.

Take a look
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall attracts many of the same kind of artifacts found at the full scale sized wall in Washington D.C. (For the Pantagraph, Welsh Photography)
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall attracts many of the same kind of artifacts found at the full scale sized wall in Washington D.C. (For the Pantagraph, Welsh Photography)
Richard Maaks is awarded a medal for his service in Vietnam duringa period of time he was recovering from shrapnel wounds. (For the Pantagraph)
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