Memorial Day is a time to recognize veterans and to reflect on the sacrifices they have made for America from the Revolutionary War to the present wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For three Vietnam War veterans who recently sat down for an interview to reflect on their service and what Memorial Day means for them, they think about their time in the service year-round and not just during the military-recognition holidays.



Dick Bergling of Anoka founded Anoka County Chapter 470 of the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans of America in 1989 to recognize veterans of different eras whether its members were part of a funeral honor guard or walking with sign.



Mike Clark of Anoka, another former president of Chapter 470, believes Memorial Day is for people who have not served to pause and remember the sacrifices that were made.



“We probably live it every day,” Clark said of the veterans. “What we do here with Memorial Day is put it on in hopes that people who have not attended these ceremonies will come and attend and maybe say, ‘We have to do this again the following year.’”



Tony Arellano of Ramsey, current president of Chapter 470, said Memorial Day is a time for him to remember his friends and family who also served in the military.



“I look at it as observing the service of other veterans,” he said.



Over the course of the three-day weekend, Chapter 470 Vietnam veterans will participate in five Memorial Day ceremonies with two of them being held locally Saturday, May 29 at Morningside Memorial Gardens in Coon Rapids at 10 a.m. and at the Bunker Hills Park Veteran’s Memorial by Pavilion No. 3 at 11:30 a.m.



These two services are presented by the veteran’s organizations of Anoka County.



In addition to these two local services, Chapter 470 will participate in services at two St. Anthony cemeteries and they are helping to organize the Memorial Day ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Wall by the State Capitol.



This year, the coffin flag of fellow Vietnam War veteran Wallace “Skip” Schmidt of St. Paul will be flown on the flagpole during the ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Wall.



Clark said this is the first time since Schmidt died in 1972 that his flag will be unfolded and flown on a flagpole. Schmidt was severely wounded during a firefight in Vietnam in 1968. Once he got home, the ridicule and hostility he faced drove him to the point of hanging himself in his closet in 1972.



Different paths to war



Clark enlisted in the U.S. Army in June 1965 just after graduating from St. Cloud Technical High School. His father had served, so it was expected that he would too.



The Army assigned him to be a medic. While in Vietnam from December 1966 to September 1967, there seemed to be firefights every day. When he was not dodging bullets and booby traps, life was still miserable hiking through the tropical jungle and eating out of a can, Clark said.



Clark’s time in the war ended early due to injury. A friend he was walking alongside accidently knocked a grenade out of a tree branch that instantly killed him and shot shrapnel into the legs of Clark.



Clark’s Achilles tendon was severed on one leg and his foot was infected, but he eventually healed after receiving medical treatment.



Arellano did not enlist after he graduated from Anoka High School. He was drafted in November 1966, but he was no draft dodger. He actually asked to serve on dangerous missions for the 101st Airborne where he would jump out of helicopters in hot LZs (landing zones) to help re-supply troops and the medics.



A classmate of Arellano was Bergling, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in Vietnam from March 1967 to January 1969.



During his first tour of duty, Bergling served with the 1st Marine Division on a helicopter carrier off the coast of Vietnam near the demilitarized zone that separated North and South Vietnam.



During his second tour of duty, he was a riverboat engineer in the Mekong Delta. His unit ferried recognizance patrols.



“In my opinion that’s what you do for the benefit of living in this free country,” Bergling said. “The only reason we’re still free is because people are serving in the military.”



Memories year-round



Arellano, the current president of Chapter 470, hates Thanksgiving because he got to Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1967 with the 101st Airborne helicopter division that landed in the middle of combat zones to re-supply the troops.



Around the time of February and March each year, he needs to be on his own a lot because he thinks about the Tet Offensive, which began on Jan. 31, 1968. During this campaign, there was one day where he got a bad omen and another supply sergeant volunteered to take his place on a mission. His unit lost 47 men in an attack that he would have been a part of, so he has had survivor’s guilt.



Going to the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall at the State Capitol on Memorial Day to honor the fallen veterans is significant for Arellano because it helps give him some closure.



“Even after 40-some years, that is still there with all of us,” he said. “We still have certain things that bother the hell out of us.”



When Arellano is watching the news and sees footage from Afghanistan or Iraq, he has flashbacks of memories from the Vietnam War. He has thought a lot about the people who died around him and wondered why he survived.



This has affected him in his personal life, from his marriage to him getting in trouble with the law, according to Arellano.



When Vietnam veterans came home, they had no idea what post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was, but they knew they were changed because it is hard to not be affected by war. All they could do was work, put bread on the table and cope.



“The vets today are really lucky in that counseling is available to them over in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Clark said. “They don’t have to go for 30 years wondering, ‘Am I crazy?’”



Having a positive impact



Memorial Day is almost every day for members of Chapter 470 because they have gone to over 200 military funerals a year in recent years to show their support to the families who lost loved ones.



Doing this is very important to these Vietnam veterans because many of them have relatives serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, so they are very adamant that the veterans of today are respected.



Bergling was very bitter after the Vietnam War because of the way servicemen were treated and that politicians, which he calls “the suits,” quit the war.



He wondered if he was the only one who felt this way. When he went to the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs in 1986 for counseling, he found out that many other Vietnam veterans felt the same way he did. He found out about a Vietnam veterans chapter out of Brooklyn Center and joined.



Three years later in 1989, Bergling was at a Vietnam veterans reunion and when he was looking at the sign-up sheet, he noticed that a lot of them lived in Anoka County, so he thought there should be a new chapter closer to home for these veterans.



Chapter 470 currently has 98 members who participate in whatever way they can. Many go to funerals every week to serve as an honor guard. Oftentimes, there are more than one a day, but they keep going as long as they are able to even if it is in the middle of winter.



This chapter has also got involved in non-veteran causes. Every five years for the last 20 years, Chapter 470 members have walked from the Anoka County History Center to the Wetterling home in St. Joseph in remembrance of Jacob Wetterling and other children who have been abducted.



Chapter 470 members worked side-by-side with Anoka County Historical Society staff to create a Vietnam War era exhibit that won an award from the American Association for State and Local History. On its own dime, Chapter 470 flew staff from the historical society to Atlanta to accept this award.



Every year, Chapter 470 members walk from the Coon Rapids VFW to the Anoka County History Center to give the general public a visible reminder of Vietnam veterans.



They keep doing these walks and stay as visible as possible so the general public will not forget about the sacrifices veterans have made.



The donations the non-profit Chapter 470 receives goes back into uniform and rifle maintenance, memorial projects and veterans in need.



“I wanted it to be something positive for these guys,” Bergling said. “Something that would be positive that would go contrary to what mainstream America thought of us. I wanted it to be something that when these guys got involved they were proud of what they did and they were recognized in the community for what they did.”