FINDING WAYS TO HEAL

BENNINGTON -- Few who lived through the Vietnam War era weren't
touched by it, but those who fought in the war carry it with them for
life. Some of those veterans, members of Vietnam Veterans of America,
have found that by getting together to help each other and the
community, they're better able to live with the memory of the war and
turn that memory to good use.

John Miner, president of Chapter 601 of the Vietnam Veterans of
America, based in Bennington, calls the organization's work "healing
through service." The chapter has 88 members and received its charter
in 1992. The national organization named Miner member of the year in
2001.

Perhaps the most impressive project the chapter has completed under
Miner's guidance is getting the Veterans Administration to locate a
health clinic in Bennington that now serves 2000 veterans.

"There've been so many projects that I forget what I've done," Miner
said. "But it's everybody believing in it. I alone could not have done
it."

It took the sudden shock of seeing newscasts of bombing in Iraq during
the 1990 Gulf War to change Miner from a man who kept his thoughts of
Vietnam to himself to a man who spends most of his waking hours
working for veterans' causes.

"It brought back a lot of memories," Miner said, memories that he had
to face and deal with. "At that time I got very involved in the local
chapter."

Other projects of the chapter include bringing a traveling replica of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington to Bennington in 1994. Two
years ago the chapter brought a traveling Vietnam war museum to Mount
Anthony Union High School, and last year the chapter completed a drive
to line the driveway of the Vermont Veterans Home with flagpoles and
American flags.

Chapter 601 has completed these and other projects in addition to
lobbying Montpelier and Washington on veterans issues. The chapter has
helped countless veterans get health care and counseling and, if
needed, pay for food, shelter and clothing.

The latest project is to bring a national program, Veterans Against
Drugs, to Bennington's schools. State Rep. Joseph Krawczyk,
R-Bennington, a platoon leader in Vietnam, a retired army colonel and
a member of the chapter, said veterans are working with administrators
and teachers to design a program to teach core values, and help
students become responsible citizens and steer away from drug and
alcohol abuse.

The program will start with fourth and fifth graders, following the
advice of Sue Maguire, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School,
to start with young students. Ronald Elwell, a chapter member and
retired Bennington police officer who has worked with youth in the
past, is devoting time to the program, and the veterans have sought
the guidance of substance abuse prevention specialist Judith Fellows,
Krawczyk said.

Vietnam-era veterans, who served when substance abuse was rampant in
the military, are well suited to the task of addressing the issue
today, Krawczyk said. In Vietnam, four out of 10 soldiers would test
positive for substance abuse, he said. By 1994 when he was a commander
in Germany, the military had reduced that fraction to one in 2,500, he
said.

Like other Vietnam veterans, it has taken Krawczyk time to come to
terms with his service in the war. "I had experiences I think about
every day," he said. In 1983, Krawczyk found the courage to visit the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he was stunned by
its emotional impact, he said. These days he corresponds by e-mail
with his daughter, Michelle Krawczyk, an Army captain commanding
troops in Tikrit, Iraq.

Phil Young, the chaplain of Chapter 601, served as a Marine in
Vietnam.

"I took an AK-47 round right in the throat," he said. The wound took
him out of action and put him in the hospital for five months. But it
healed faster than the survivor guilt he felt for not completing the
mission and for leaving his fellow combatants behind. That, plus the
common experience of Vietnam veterans that they weren't received well
when they returned home, made Young's emotional recovery a long one.
Like Miner, a shock woke him up and started him on the road to
recovery. For Young, it was seeing the moving wall when it came to
Bennington.

Young wrote in an e-mail to the Banner, "The healing cannot be
accomplished by an individual. Alone we can only suppress the dark
side the war has left us. True healing begins when we admit to
ourselves the depth of pain we suffer and then reach out to others for
help, be they friends, family or professionals." For him, family,
work, volunteerism and remembering his fallen brothers are the keys,
he wrote. Young started and maintains the annual Vietnam Veterans
Veteran Day Road Race, a fundraiser for veterans that's about to hold
its ninth race.

Miner credited Robert Hannan, a vocational rehabilitation counselor in
Bennington, with getting the ball rolling that resulted in Chapter 601
receiving a charter.

Hannan told the Banner that Vietnam Veterans of America is a vital
organization because it serves a need that no other organization can
for that generation of soldiers.

"A lot of these people might have been lost by the wayside had this
not happened," Hannan said. "I'm proud to have been at least part of
making it happen."