Locals thanked for fighting in Vietnam

Jessica VanderKolk

BELLEFONTE — Beneath American flags at attention from between the cinderblocks of the middle school's auditorium walls, Chuck Lyons, of Lewistown, sat Sunday dressed in his U.S. Army service uniform.

Craig Houtz

Charles Lyons. an U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran, salutes during the Presentation of the Colors during a ceremony to honor more than 100 Vietnam War veterans from the 171st Legislative District on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. CDT/Craig Houtz

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Lyons had worn the uniform for a service that morning. He wears it to three or four military funerals each month as part of his service with the honor guard at Lewis-town’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7011.

“It feels good,” he said of wearing the uniform in honor of others. “It brings back memories of serving in Vietnam. I hope they do it someday for me.”

Lyons joined about 85 Vietnam veterans from Centre and Mifflin counties at a recognition ceremony held by state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte. Benninghoff also has recognized veterans of World War II and the Korean War.

“As far as I’m concerned, every day’s a good day to celebrate Veterans Day,” Benninghoff told the crowd, alluding to this year’s day of remembrance on Wednesday.

A video tribute to the men and women who served during the Vietnam War between 1954 and 1975 said 383,000 Pennsylvanians served. More than 3,000 were lost. About 10,000 of the 2.5 million who served in all U.S. branches were women.

Lyons served eight years and was a staff sergeant with the 112th Infantry. He holds good and bad memories from those years.

“The good is I’m doing my honor for my comrades,” he said of his 21 years in the honor guard. “It’s about time they did something for its veterans.”

Benninghoff thanked the veterans, saying later the ability to give recognition is his reason for holding these ceremonies.

“No time, as my mother always says, is too long to say thank you and I’m sorry,” he said. “So I’m sorry we didn’t do this better and sooner, and thank you for your service.”

J.P. Gardner served one tour in Vietnam, from 1968 to 1969, leaving his Bellefonte home in 1967. He moved to Kansas afterward and was away about 40 years before returning to live in Bellefonte in 2007. “I’ve seen a few classmates of mine here,” said the corporal in the Marine Corps. “This is fantastic. It’s great.” Gardner said he’s spent a lot of time trying to forget memories from Vietnam, though they come up when he’s hunting or camping with friends.

Eva Long, of Millheim, said she joined the Women’s Army Corps right out of high school. She never served in Vietnam, but did clerical work in Germany for three years.

“It’s a real honor,” she said of Sunday’s recognition. “I don’t think veterans are honored enough.”

Long’s husband, Ernest Long, also served during Vietnam. His decade of service took him various places overseas, as a staff sergeant with the Air Force.

Bernard Rockey, of Bellefonte, served four years as a Marine Corps sergeant and said he also has good and bad memories, something he said doesn’t discriminate between branches.

“Yes it was” incredibly hard doing his duty as a sniper, he said, which included sleeping in swamps. Rockey said it “felt really good” to be honored for that work.