Did you serve in Vietnam, as Max Cleland '64, Hon. '77, Hon. '08 did? Share your story with Stetson.
The Vietnam War was a defining event for a generation of Stetson University students. The university has launched the Stetson Vietnam Era Vets Project to find and recognize Stetson alumni who served in the military during this era. The project is being led by alumnus Jay Mechling ’67 and College of Arts & Sciences Dean Grady Ballenger.
In 1965, SU students Jack Dawson and Judy Gregg fill envelopes for a Pi Kappa Phi project to send cards to soldiers in Vietnam.
Some Stetson students were in combat in Vietnam, some served in Vietnam in noncombat roles, and some served in the military during the Vietnam era but were not stationed there. Some may have given their lives in this service. We seek to find and honor the stories of all of Stetson’s Vietnam Era veterans.
If you are a vet from this era, or if you know the whereabouts of a former Stetson student who is a Vietnam era vet, please contact grady.ballenger@stetson.edu, using the heading “Stetson Vietnam Vets.” If you know the name of a Stetson student who died in the war, please share the name.
The project seeks first to recognize and memorialize these veterans. Working with faculty and students, Mechling and Ballenger hope to develop public programming, oral history projects, curricular projects and related activities to educate the current generation of Stetson students and the wider public about the meanings of the Vietnam era to those who lived through those troubled years.
Did You Know?
The Stetson University duPont-Ball Library houses the Max Cleland Collection. It features more than 800 pieces of Cleland’s personal memorabilia, including items from his time in Vietnam and his time in the U.S. Senate and other political offices. The collection also features 5,000 photos, some of which may be viewed online, plus Cleland video clips, and audio clips from his time in Vietnam. The collection was acquired in 2007.
The Alumni Office should have a list of the ROTC graduates from around ’56 to ’69 that were Commissioned Officers in the Army as well as other branches. Max and a number of others served in Vietnam. Others like myself got lucky and were stationed in Europe. My daughter was born in the U.S. Army Hospital in Munich, were I served as a Platoon Leader and the Battalion Adjutant of the 3rd Engineer Battalion, 24th Mechanized Infantry Division. While a Platoon Leader, my Company participated in NATO maneuvers in eastern Turkey in June/July of ’66, and in Norway, near Tromso, 200 miles north of the Artic Circle, in Feb/March ’67 at 42 degrees BELOW zero. It definitely was not Sunny Florida! Had my appendix removed in an Italian Field Tent Hospital in Norway at 42 below outside. After I returned to the States, I served in the 2070th U.S. Army Training School in the metro Washington, D.C. area for several years.
Thank you for your comment Chip. Several offices on campus are working on various lists that we plan to cross reference. Is it possible however, that many were drafted and didn’t necessarily go through ROTC?
Chip, thanks for your reply. We’re trying to cast the net wide, and from several hands, to make sure we reach everyone we can. We’ll keep you posted on how things are going. I’m getting regular responses, so I’m hopeful we can get a comprehensive list. Thanks again for your help. Best, Grady