PapillionBusinesses.com Interviews Tom Brown (President) and Ron Elwell (Executive Director) of the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation.

The interview continues with Tom Brown.

There are so many different parts of the Memorial. Can you go through them?

We’ve got 11 obelisks, one for each year of the war. On one side of the obelisk, if you look at that, you have 1965 there. [Points to obelisk]

One side has what was going on in Vietnam at that time. The other side has what was going on in the United States at the same period of time.

I came back home in ’68, July of ’68, and the issue was you were to take off your uniform because there was so much protesting going on. I didn’t do that, but I am originally from New York. When I went back to JFK Airport in New York, you know, there is all the protesters there and everything else. It was not a very hospitable welcome.

I stayed home for about 30 days. I got stationed here in Omaha, and it was a whole different attitude here. The support here for the veterans was really positive which was nice to see.

Where did you serve?

I served basically from Da Nang, which is the upper [part of] what they call I Corps area, up to the DMZ and the DMZ, demilitarized zone. That’s the divider between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. And I was up there my last three or four months before coming home.

Did you get to come home before the war ended?

Oh yeah, I came home in the middle of the war. I arrived in Vietnam in May of 1966, and came home in July of 1968.

In the Marine Corps you do a 13-month tour. As I was doing that, I felt very strongly on a positive side about the war, so I did a six-month extension. Went home. Stayed there for 30 days, came back. And then I did another six-month extension after that.

Wow.

But the second extension I couldn’t complete. I only did about half of that because my dad had a heart attack, and I got medevac’d back to the United States.

Then I got stationed back here in Omaha and with the Marine Corps on 30th and Laurel Street, way up there in North Omaha and I did Toys for Tots. You know, going to all the McDonald’s and Western Electric back in those days. People would donate toys, and then we would work with the different agencies in delivering the toys. But the Reserves in Omaha, what they did is clean the toys and fix them so they were usable, like bicycles and stuff like that.

When I was there, I’m active duty for the last 10 [months, from] September of ‘68 and got discharged in August of ‘69.

So, this has been your home for a long time.

I lived in Nebraska. I got married to a Nebraska gal back in 1970. We are still married and that’s 54 years ago.

That’s beautiful.

It’s 53, to be 54 this November, but so that was good. And that worked out.

Were you originally from Nebraska born and raised?

No. Born Bronx. Oh, and I grew up basically in Queens and then the family moved out to Long Island. I was in an orphanage in the Bronx. And then I got adopted out when I was about 4, and then they moved out to Long Island. And I lived there until I was about [my] mid-20s.

And then I went to the Marine Corps in Times Square is where I joined the Marine Corps. Well, from Long Island, that’s about a half hour train ride. Times Square is the center there of the theatrical district and all the shows and Broadway shows and stuff like that and then you got the other four boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens and, stuff like that.

So, it was the Marine Corps that brought you to Omaha.

Yeah.

It’s the Navy that brought us to Omaha too. It’s kind of funny because there’s not much water here.

I got here and they really didn’t know what to do with me. And so, they said, “Well, we’ve got a big program coming up and [it’s] called Toys for Tots.” And they needed somebody to actively be involved in it. And I said, “Yeah, glad to do it.” It was a fun thing. You know, you went to a lot of different meetings and you received toys that different organizations and groups donated and then go back to the thing and we would have barrels, just cardboard barrel type things, out at all the McDonald’s and people would just donate toys to them. And then we drive around to the different McDonald’s in Omaha, Lincoln, Fremont and all that and just pick up the joys take them back to the Reserve Center, and then rebuild them, paint them, fix them, correct them or whatever. That was kind of the way I spent my winter.

What else can I tell you?

Generally, I have so many questions, but I just floored how beautiful this is and how overdue something like this is that I’m kind of speechless right now.

Ron:  Yeah.

Tom: Yeah.

Tom: Well, we have five service flags. The Marine Corps and the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard. And in the middle here, we have where the American flag is going this way.

This is the American flag. And it is 6o ft in the air. You have on the far side and over here are the dates, all of the dates 1959 to 1975. Then over here, this far one says,  “Some gave all.”

At night this is all lit up.

(To be continued)

Come and see the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial for yourself at the ceremony on 6 June!

Get tickets and learn more here:
https://nvvmf.org/

Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial
11691 South 108th Street
Papillion NE, 68046