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Rock County Vietnam veterans Keith Schmuck and Lon Remme traveled to Washington, D.C, Saturday with Midwest Honor Flight to tour national military memorials in the nation’s capitol.
They said it was a meaningful way to reflect back on their military service.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Remme said. “I’m more than grateful to the sponsors and the people who supported it.”
Midwest Honor Flight is a non-profit organization with a mission to transport America’s veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service.
Remme said all of the memorials were well done but as a Vietnam veteran, he said the wall carrying the names of thousands of fallen soldiers triggered memories.
“Seeing all the names of the soldiers who aren’t here to see it — thousands of them …” Remme said. “After 55 years, those memorials bring back reality.”
Schmuck reported a similar experience and encourages other veterans to sign up for an Honor Flight if they have the opportunity to do so.
“It’s well worth the time,” he said. “The recognition you get is awesome, and you deserve it.”
He remembers being discharged and advised to wear civilian clothes and not talk about serving in Vietnam. “We heard stories about guys being spit on,” Schmuck said.
Veterans on Honor Flights are experiencing the war memorials and experiencing a hero’s welcome that didn’t happen over 50 years ago.
“When we got to Washington, D.C., there were 50 to 75 people cheering and clapping for us,” Schmuck said.
“When we got back to Sioux Falls, we had an Honor Guard escort, and they ran our buses right into the arena in front of a crowded grandstand of people.”
Halfway around the world and four miles apart
Remme was a Marine in Alpha Company of the Third Anti-Tank Battalion.
He was on a three-man crew in small tank mounted with a 106 mm rifle. It was Remme’s job to go outside of the vehicle to load the weapon.
He served 22 months in the country, from 1967 to 1969, for the full siege of Khe Sanh. “It was plenty,” he said about his time there.
Remme didn’t know it, but Schmuck was also serving in Vietnam during that time, and at one point was only four miles away.
Schmuck was a trained steel worker with the Navy Seabees and was in Vietnam for nearly a year, from December of 1968 to November of 1969.
As a construction worker, he built camps, airstrips, roads and bridges, and he remembers frequent nearby enemy fire and difficult conditions.
“I spent my first six weeks in a trench,” he said. “It seemed the weather was either cold and damp, or so hot you wished it would rain again.”
Once his hut was built in camp, he recalls placing soup cans with diesel fuel at the posts of the bed to prevent centipedes and snakes from crawling up, and he slept under mosquito nets.
Schmuck lost 60 percent of his hearing when rocket fire struck nearby, but he knows he fared better than many who lost their limbs or lives.
“I’m proud to have served for my family and friends,” he said. “If called, I’d do it again.”
Back in the states
The two farm boys from Kenneth and Hardwick knew each other growing up but didn’t know about each other’s service in Vietnam until they started dating sisters Darla and Donna Huiskes,
Lon and Donna raised two children, Brian and Kristi, in Luverne where he worked for 42 years in the district’s transportation department. He retired as director six years ago and now still drives buses.
Keith and Darla raised three children — Cory, Tammi and Kim — near Kenneth where they farmed until 1993 when he went to work for the county highway department. In 2001 he went to work with Henning Construction until recently retiring.
Rock County Vietnam veterans Gawaine Diekevers, Steen, and Merlyn Buys, Luverne, were also among the 123 who flew with Midwest Honor Flight Saturday.
The Mission 7 Midwest Honor Flight in September included Rock County Korean War veteran Arden Sorenson, rural Jasper, and Wayne Michelson, Magnolia.
More about the organization and how to support it can be found on Midwest Honor Flight’s Facebook page.