7 hours ago
2
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - For Vietnam veterans, a travel to the nation’s Capitol is special, but a travel to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is sacred.
One by one, Vietnam Veteran Mike Dillman recovered the names of the men helium served alongside. With each name, Dillman rubbed his manus implicit the etching and said a speedy prayer.
“God emotion him,” said Dillman.
While immoderate veterans hunt for a fewer names, Dillman is looking for 18. He was astatine the bedside for each antheral erstwhile they died.
“We were determination with them, we prayed with them, you person to recognize that these are precious men, they are men who lived and died for us,” Dillman said.
During his 14 months successful Vietnam arsenic a chaplain’s assistant, Dillman sat beside wounded soldiers and watched hundreds instrumentality their past breath.
After they were gone, helium escorted them to the morgue to execute past rites and wrote letters to their families, sharing details of their loved ones’ last moments.
“We were losing 600 men a week... We did our champion to marque definite these fellas knew they were not unsocial and that they were loved,” Dillman continued.
For the past 54 years, Dillman has carried the memories of his clip successful Vietnam each day.
His PTSD is truthful aggravated that each time is simply a struggle, but being capable to spot acquainted names erstwhile again connected the partition gives him immoderate consciousness of peace.
“Reagan said they laid down 2 lives, the beingness they were surviving and past the beingness that they would person lived. They gave up their close to beryllium dads and husbands and brothers and grandparents, and they gave up their close to beryllium revered aged men similar me,” Dillman explained.
