thedrifter
10-01-07, 06:16 AM
Vietnam veterans paddle-out honors fallen troops
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE ---- On the ocean, they bobbed atop surfboards, hands clasped in fellowship. On the shore, they pored over printouts of names, 58,164 of them, looking for those that belonged to buddies killed in a heavily protested war.
View A Video
www.nctimes.com/movie/paddleout0907/viewer.html
They shook hands, exchanged hugs, dried tears and received overdue thanks.
Above all, the veterans and their loved ones who assembled Sunday at the Oceanside Municipal Pier and Amphitheater huddled in remembrance during the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Paddle-out.
Jerry Anderson, a business owner from Encinitas, organized the event as a way to provide closure for himself and others. He said there was no significance to his choice of dates aside from the outdoor venue being available that day.
He said the paddle-out was a one-time event and that he doesn't plan to produce another.
Before paddlers took to the water, Anderson urged fellow veterans in a crowd of nearly 200, "to say with honor and pride that 'I'm a Vietnam veteran.' "
Elected officials made the similar points during their remarks.
"We're really and truly here to do one thing: to remember the past and future heroes," said Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood.
That seemed to come naturally to the paddle-out's 75 participants.
One of them, Howard Fisher, of Julian received medals for bravery and a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered in Vietnam. Today, his second-born son, Travis, is deployed with the Army in Iraq.
Fisher said he would paddle in tribute to his buddy, Jose Cisneros, who died July 12, 1969, in a massive booby trap.
"We went through basic (training) together, we went to Vietnam together, we went to bars together and got our wallets stolen together," Fisher said. "I called his house when I went home and they said he didn't make it. It broke my heart. It still does."
Casey Borst, a respiratory therapist from Oceanside, paddled in honor of Thomas Orr, a boyhood pal from Garden Grove who was killed one month into his deployment in Vietnam.
As 10-year-olds, Casey and his friend played cowboys atop a neighbor's calf.
"It's good to remember," Borst said. "It's a chance to heal."
Dennis Tico said he came to remember Daryl Crum, his teammate on Oceanside High School's football team.
"He was a better football player than I was," Tico, a retired Oceanside firefighter, said of his friend who died in Vietnam.
Edward Golden Jr., also of Oceanside, said he would paddle in memory of Mark Robinson, a Marine and friend of Golden's older brother.
"I was four years younger, and his death was the first exposure I had to someone killed in Vietnam," Golden said. "I'm glad to be here."
The veterans paddled through gentle breakers and formed a circle in the deep, blue-green water just south of the pier, where onlookers assembled quietly along the railing above.
The men on surfboards joined hands. A paddler in the middle of the circle held a U.S. flag. Participants cast flowers into the sea to honor fallen troops.
From the pier, Marines in full dress issued a 21-rifle salute. A bugler played taps and the paddlers cheered their approval before returning to the beach.
The paddle-out is a traditional, Hawaiian way of remembering people who have died.
A Hawaiian theme also permeated the outdoor amphitheater, with performances by the Moonlight Beach Serenaders and the whispers of palm trees among displays of photographs, flags and memorabilia.
Henry and Karen Trulson of Encinitas, and their daughter, Angie, took it all in from the stands. Angie Trulson was a newborn when her father was deployed to Vietnam.
Karen Trulson noted that when her husband returned, he and most other veterans received no appreciation.
"What we did was we put it past us and tried to grow our hair as long as we could," Henry Trulson said. "We were looked down on. We were spit on."
He said he spent more than 30 years without talking about the war. Things changed in 2004, when a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came to Oceanside, Trulson said.
"As we were leaving, we passed a volunteer booth for the sons and daughters of Vietnam vets," he said. "One of them reached over and said 'thank you.' "
Trulson became emotional and the volunteer asked what was the matter.
"I said it was the first time I had been thanked."
Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE ---- On the ocean, they bobbed atop surfboards, hands clasped in fellowship. On the shore, they pored over printouts of names, 58,164 of them, looking for those that belonged to buddies killed in a heavily protested war.
View A Video
www.nctimes.com/movie/paddleout0907/viewer.html
They shook hands, exchanged hugs, dried tears and received overdue thanks.
Above all, the veterans and their loved ones who assembled Sunday at the Oceanside Municipal Pier and Amphitheater huddled in remembrance during the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Paddle-out.
Jerry Anderson, a business owner from Encinitas, organized the event as a way to provide closure for himself and others. He said there was no significance to his choice of dates aside from the outdoor venue being available that day.
He said the paddle-out was a one-time event and that he doesn't plan to produce another.
Before paddlers took to the water, Anderson urged fellow veterans in a crowd of nearly 200, "to say with honor and pride that 'I'm a Vietnam veteran.' "
Elected officials made the similar points during their remarks.
"We're really and truly here to do one thing: to remember the past and future heroes," said Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood.
That seemed to come naturally to the paddle-out's 75 participants.
One of them, Howard Fisher, of Julian received medals for bravery and a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered in Vietnam. Today, his second-born son, Travis, is deployed with the Army in Iraq.
Fisher said he would paddle in tribute to his buddy, Jose Cisneros, who died July 12, 1969, in a massive booby trap.
"We went through basic (training) together, we went to Vietnam together, we went to bars together and got our wallets stolen together," Fisher said. "I called his house when I went home and they said he didn't make it. It broke my heart. It still does."
Casey Borst, a respiratory therapist from Oceanside, paddled in honor of Thomas Orr, a boyhood pal from Garden Grove who was killed one month into his deployment in Vietnam.
As 10-year-olds, Casey and his friend played cowboys atop a neighbor's calf.
"It's good to remember," Borst said. "It's a chance to heal."
Dennis Tico said he came to remember Daryl Crum, his teammate on Oceanside High School's football team.
"He was a better football player than I was," Tico, a retired Oceanside firefighter, said of his friend who died in Vietnam.
Edward Golden Jr., also of Oceanside, said he would paddle in memory of Mark Robinson, a Marine and friend of Golden's older brother.
"I was four years younger, and his death was the first exposure I had to someone killed in Vietnam," Golden said. "I'm glad to be here."
The veterans paddled through gentle breakers and formed a circle in the deep, blue-green water just south of the pier, where onlookers assembled quietly along the railing above.
The men on surfboards joined hands. A paddler in the middle of the circle held a U.S. flag. Participants cast flowers into the sea to honor fallen troops.
From the pier, Marines in full dress issued a 21-rifle salute. A bugler played taps and the paddlers cheered their approval before returning to the beach.
The paddle-out is a traditional, Hawaiian way of remembering people who have died.
A Hawaiian theme also permeated the outdoor amphitheater, with performances by the Moonlight Beach Serenaders and the whispers of palm trees among displays of photographs, flags and memorabilia.
Henry and Karen Trulson of Encinitas, and their daughter, Angie, took it all in from the stands. Angie Trulson was a newborn when her father was deployed to Vietnam.
Karen Trulson noted that when her husband returned, he and most other veterans received no appreciation.
"What we did was we put it past us and tried to grow our hair as long as we could," Henry Trulson said. "We were looked down on. We were spit on."
He said he spent more than 30 years without talking about the war. Things changed in 2004, when a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came to Oceanside, Trulson said.
"As we were leaving, we passed a volunteer booth for the sons and daughters of Vietnam vets," he said. "One of them reached over and said 'thank you.' "
Trulson became emotional and the volunteer asked what was the matter.
"I said it was the first time I had been thanked."
Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.
Ellie