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Traveling Vietnam wall stirs memories Local veterans remember their time in the war as memorial comes to Wheaton.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Victoria Pierce Daily Herald Staff Writer

For local Vietnam veterans, having the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Wheaton means many different things.

It's a chance to remember, to educate, to honor and to heal.

The Vietnam War remains one of the most complex times in U.S. history.

Three local veterans shared their thoughts on their time in conflict and their lives after returning home.

It was a subject all three were somewhat reluctant to broach. It's just not something they talk about, not even with their wives or children.

'Came back a man'

When Wayne Milligan arrived in Vietnam in 1965, the United States had about 20,000 troops stationed in the country.

By the time he left 11 months later, more than 250,000 troops were there.

"It was during the first big build-up," Milligan, 58, said while sitting in the kitchen of his Wheaton home, where the table was filled with paperwork from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2164, where he's commander.

"When you went down to Saigon to get parts, you would see all these ships and the troops unloading," he said.

It was only the beginning of a war that would last another 10 years, but the fighting was already intense throughout the countryside.

Milligan was based at An Loc, a rubber plantation that came under frequent sniper fire.

But he traveled the countryside, hooking up with various units for short periods to receive transmissions in the field, decode them and deliver the messages to commanders.

"Generally, we didn't know where we were. A helicopter would pick you up and drop us off where you were supposed to go," he said.

It was on these missions that he came under fire.

"You get so scared sometimes," Milligan said. "I remember one night they were dropping mortars on us. You could feel the concussion in the ground, so I knew it was close."

But he didn't realize just how close until he crawled out of the shelter the next morning and saw large holes in the sandbags protecting the entryway.

But at 18, 19 and 20 years old, you feel infallible, Milligan said, even in war.

"You see other guys, you fill body bags, but you think, 'That's never going to happen to me,' " he said.

Like many veterans, Milligan isn't happy to be dredging up memories of Vietnam.

He first talks about some of the...

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