Phantom Blooper
03-06-04, 09:02 PM
Memorial Wall Official Fights Federal Approval to Add Name
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2004; Page B01
The Defense Department customarily orders a few new names to be engraved onto the Vietnam Veterans Memorial each year, giving a couple of inches of permanent recognition to individual veterans who died from combat wounds years after the war ended.
This year, one name being considered -- Air Force Capt. Edward Alan Brudno -- is sparking a new debate about how the war's toll should be measured and raising delicate questions about who deserves a spot on the glossy granite panels and who doesn't.
What if the wounds were psychological, and what if they resulted in suicide? Should the names of those veterans be etched onto the memorial? Or would that open the door to thousands of additions that might alter both the monument's appearance and its spirit?
The Air Force Personnel Office says that Brudno's name belongs on the wall. He endured 71/2 years as a prisoner of war after his F-4 was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. Four months after he returned home in 1973, he killed himself in his wife's family home in Harrison, N.Y. He was the first released POW to die.
This year, after members of Brudno's family asked the Defense Department to consider adding his name to the wall, the Air Force launched a medical review of his case and ruled that Brudno's suicide was a direct result of "both psychological and physical wounds" suffered in Vietnam, said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for the Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio.
But when word of the recommendation reached the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund about 10 days ago, President Jan C. Scruggs argued against the idea. Brudno's family had approached Scruggs years earlier to see whether they could get his name added to the wall, and Scruggs referred them to the Defense Department. But after the Air Force made its recommendation, Scruggs balked. He sent letters to staffers on Capitol Hill warning that adding Brudno's name to the wall would set a precedent that could result in thousands of suicides being added to the 58,325 names on the wall. He said he would press for congressional hearings to stop the addition, if necessary.
"Societies do not condone certain behaviors, as understandable and unfortunate as they may be, and suicide is one of those behaviors," Scruggs said by telephone yesterday. "It's something to be discouraged, not encouraged."
The efforts to keep Brudno's name off the wall have outraged his family and former POWs who served with him. His brother, Robert Brudno, of Bethesda, said he considers Scruggs's campaign to keep his brother's name off the memorial a dishonor to a family that followed proper military procedure to get the name engraved. He said that the effort to stop the addition demonstrates that Scruggs is trying to assert undue control over a memorial that Brudno said belongs to everyone, not the man who founded it.
"I feel like my brother has become a prop," Brudno said. "I set out to do this because I loved the guy."
There is no solid count of Vietnam veterans who have committed suicide after the war, and estimates range from a few thousand to 180,000 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The memorial currently includes the names of veterans who killed themselves while in Vietnam, but none who committed suicide after returning home. If Brudno's name is added, Scruggs argues, thousands of families will try to get names added to a memorial that doesn't have room for them.
"If the Department of Defense decides to go down this route, I guarantee you -- and the Department of Defense -- that 20,000 families of service members who committed suicide will demand, and will now have legal standing, to place those names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Scruggs said.
That contention doesn't sit well with some former POWs, who say that Brudno's suicide came before the military grasped the psychological impact Vietnamese prison camps could have on someone like Brudno, who was 25 when he was captured and a day from his 33rd birthday when he killed himself. The native of Quincy, Mass., had studied aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined the Air Force in the hopes of becoming an astronaut.
Orson Swindle is a former POW who communicated with the Air Force captain, known as "Al," for two years by tapping messages through the wall that separated them in the Son Tay prison camp outside Hanoi and who then spent several years with him inside Hao Lo prison, known as the Hanoi Hilton. He said Brudno had a reputation throughout the prison camps as a sharp wit, one who several times foiled his prison guards and subverted their attempts to use him as a propaganda tool.
Swindle, now a member of the Federal Trade Commission, said that unlike other prisoners of war who were released later, Brudno received no support when he returned to the United States. Brudno's suicide served as something of a wake-up call for many returning veterans and military support organizations, he said.
The military wasn't "prepared for what potentially deep, deep psychic wounds could come from that," Swindle said. "We were all caught up in the euphoria of being home. . . . So maybe we thought we could just finesse it for a while. Sadly, there wasn't anyone there to help."
Scruggs said that a plaque that will soon be added to the memorial is designed to honor all those whose premature deaths were a result of their service in Vietnam but who are not eligible for name recognition on the wall. He said the plaque intends to honor primarily those who died of cancer resulting from Agent Orange and from suicides induced by post-traumatic stress disorder. That's the place for Brudno to be honored, he said, not the memorial. He said that recognizing those who commit suicide might encourage suicide attempts by disturbed veterans hoping to stage a political protest. He said there have been three suicide attempts at the memorial, two successful.
Brudno's brother said he can't understand how anyone could believe that his brother's name would open the door to such gruesome possibilities. The effort to add the name to the memorial, he said, won't stop because of Scruggs's protestations.
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2004; Page B01
The Defense Department customarily orders a few new names to be engraved onto the Vietnam Veterans Memorial each year, giving a couple of inches of permanent recognition to individual veterans who died from combat wounds years after the war ended.
This year, one name being considered -- Air Force Capt. Edward Alan Brudno -- is sparking a new debate about how the war's toll should be measured and raising delicate questions about who deserves a spot on the glossy granite panels and who doesn't.
What if the wounds were psychological, and what if they resulted in suicide? Should the names of those veterans be etched onto the memorial? Or would that open the door to thousands of additions that might alter both the monument's appearance and its spirit?
The Air Force Personnel Office says that Brudno's name belongs on the wall. He endured 71/2 years as a prisoner of war after his F-4 was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. Four months after he returned home in 1973, he killed himself in his wife's family home in Harrison, N.Y. He was the first released POW to die.
This year, after members of Brudno's family asked the Defense Department to consider adding his name to the wall, the Air Force launched a medical review of his case and ruled that Brudno's suicide was a direct result of "both psychological and physical wounds" suffered in Vietnam, said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for the Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio.
But when word of the recommendation reached the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund about 10 days ago, President Jan C. Scruggs argued against the idea. Brudno's family had approached Scruggs years earlier to see whether they could get his name added to the wall, and Scruggs referred them to the Defense Department. But after the Air Force made its recommendation, Scruggs balked. He sent letters to staffers on Capitol Hill warning that adding Brudno's name to the wall would set a precedent that could result in thousands of suicides being added to the 58,325 names on the wall. He said he would press for congressional hearings to stop the addition, if necessary.
"Societies do not condone certain behaviors, as understandable and unfortunate as they may be, and suicide is one of those behaviors," Scruggs said by telephone yesterday. "It's something to be discouraged, not encouraged."
The efforts to keep Brudno's name off the wall have outraged his family and former POWs who served with him. His brother, Robert Brudno, of Bethesda, said he considers Scruggs's campaign to keep his brother's name off the memorial a dishonor to a family that followed proper military procedure to get the name engraved. He said that the effort to stop the addition demonstrates that Scruggs is trying to assert undue control over a memorial that Brudno said belongs to everyone, not the man who founded it.
"I feel like my brother has become a prop," Brudno said. "I set out to do this because I loved the guy."
There is no solid count of Vietnam veterans who have committed suicide after the war, and estimates range from a few thousand to 180,000 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The memorial currently includes the names of veterans who killed themselves while in Vietnam, but none who committed suicide after returning home. If Brudno's name is added, Scruggs argues, thousands of families will try to get names added to a memorial that doesn't have room for them.
"If the Department of Defense decides to go down this route, I guarantee you -- and the Department of Defense -- that 20,000 families of service members who committed suicide will demand, and will now have legal standing, to place those names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Scruggs said.
That contention doesn't sit well with some former POWs, who say that Brudno's suicide came before the military grasped the psychological impact Vietnamese prison camps could have on someone like Brudno, who was 25 when he was captured and a day from his 33rd birthday when he killed himself. The native of Quincy, Mass., had studied aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined the Air Force in the hopes of becoming an astronaut.
Orson Swindle is a former POW who communicated with the Air Force captain, known as "Al," for two years by tapping messages through the wall that separated them in the Son Tay prison camp outside Hanoi and who then spent several years with him inside Hao Lo prison, known as the Hanoi Hilton. He said Brudno had a reputation throughout the prison camps as a sharp wit, one who several times foiled his prison guards and subverted their attempts to use him as a propaganda tool.
Swindle, now a member of the Federal Trade Commission, said that unlike other prisoners of war who were released later, Brudno received no support when he returned to the United States. Brudno's suicide served as something of a wake-up call for many returning veterans and military support organizations, he said.
The military wasn't "prepared for what potentially deep, deep psychic wounds could come from that," Swindle said. "We were all caught up in the euphoria of being home. . . . So maybe we thought we could just finesse it for a while. Sadly, there wasn't anyone there to help."
Scruggs said that a plaque that will soon be added to the memorial is designed to honor all those whose premature deaths were a result of their service in Vietnam but who are not eligible for name recognition on the wall. He said the plaque intends to honor primarily those who died of cancer resulting from Agent Orange and from suicides induced by post-traumatic stress disorder. That's the place for Brudno to be honored, he said, not the memorial. He said that recognizing those who commit suicide might encourage suicide attempts by disturbed veterans hoping to stage a political protest. He said there have been three suicide attempts at the memorial, two successful.
Brudno's brother said he can't understand how anyone could believe that his brother's name would open the door to such gruesome possibilities. The effort to add the name to the memorial, he said, won't stop because of Scruggs's protestations.