Remembering -- Claymont students discover faces behind names on Vietnam Wall 

By LEE ELLIOTT, Special to The T-R 

UHRICHSVILLE – “A man does not die until there is no one left to remember him.”

  A retired Vietnam era helicopter pilot said it, a teacher passed it on, and 20 8th-grade students at Claymont Junior High now know it is true.

Maj. Franklin A. Gulledge, Jr., USMC(Ret) talks to Patty Laughlin's 8th grade class at Claymont Junior High.  Gulledge was a helicopter pilot with HMM-364, "The Purple Foxes," in Vietnam.  The students are completing an unusual  year-long project, which has put them in touch with families and friends of servicemen  who died in Vietnam during the 1960s.

Maj. Gulledge, who spoke with the class earlier this week, repeated the  words he had challenged them with earlier, thanking them for their participation in the project and for keeping the men alive through memories. 

Language arts teacher Meg Hunter initiated the project in order to teach students empathy and understanding of the era.  Hunter has a special affinity for that war because, she said, little is written in textbooks compared with the coverage of other wars. 

Each student was provided with the name of a serviceman whose name appears on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.  Some of the men were chosen from a web site on the internet maintained by Maj. Gulledge depicting the history of his squadron as well as a site he maintains for Colonel William H. Dabney honoring the Marines who held Hill 881S for 113 days during the siege of Khe Sanh.  Students, whose parents approved their participation, were instructed to talk with the families and friends of the deceased by e-mail, telephone or regular mail.

Students collected letters, photos and memorabilia, often becoming friends with their contacts in the process. The next step was a trip to Washington, D.C., and a visit to the memorial wall for the entire class.

Hunter provided students with small painted wooden doves, crayons and paper, instructing each to write an inscription on the back of the dove and make three rubbings of the serviceman's name: one for themselves, one for the family of the deceased and one for her.  Students added their own letters and memorabilia to leave at the base of the memorial, and upon returning home, they wrote  reports chronicling the lives of their servicemen.

They commented on the feelings of the families they had contacted and their own feelings after visiting the wall.  The conclusion of the project will be a book with one chapter devoted to each of the 20 servicemen.  Copies will be given to participating students, their contacts and to Gulledge to post on his web sites.

The major commended students for dealing with the difficult subject of death in war and for helping to keep his men alive through memories. Challenging students to appreciate their country and government, he reminded them that the opportunities they now have are a result of servicemen fighting to keep their country free. Gulledge described Vietnam as a beautiful country, which he has revisited twice since the end of the war, and related that he has spoken with Viet Cong who no longer express animosity toward Americans.

Students Lindsey Cox, Jordan Butler and Jesse Foutz shared their thoughts on the project. Foutz was particularly interested because his father's brother, Kenny Foutz, was killed in Vietnam.  He was able find his uncle's name on the memorial wall but had not chosen him as the soldier he was to learn about.  Instead, he chose Delbert Leasure, whose twin brother became the contact for Foutz in the project.

Butler's choice, Ken Kozai, was a member of Gulledge’s unit and, according to the major, the only Japanese/American Marine killed while flying with the Purple Foxes in Vietnam.  After Kozai’s Japanese father died, the young man's mother married an American serviceman. Kozai and his mother became U.S. citizens, and he volunteered for service in Vietnam.  Included in Butler's written report are Kozai’s flight log sheets on the day that he died in combat.  Butler laid Kozai’s favorite flowers, lilacs and roses, at the foot of the memorial.  She was too short to make the rubbing of his name but was promised by a tour guide that she would have it done and send it.

Cox agrees with the others that at first they thought the project might be boring, but she said it didn't take very long to become excited about the communications coming over the internet.  “Pretty soon I couldn't wait to get home after school and see what e-mail was waiting for me,” she said.  Cox and her mother have become friends with the relatives of Richard Earl Toney and hope to visit them in Louisiana.  Toney was 22 when he died.  His sister sent a packet of photos and letters to be laid at the base of the memorial.

It was the memorial that left the most lasting impression on the students. They talked among themselves of fear of being drafted, of their new understandings of a war that happened before they were born, of the relevance of that conflict to the war with Iraq, and most of all, how they had learned the importance of remembering.

 Lee Elliott is a freelance writer.