ABLEnews Extra

                    Remembrance

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   Every time Bill McBride catches a whiff of hydraulic fluid, he is
transported back to Vietnam's infamous A Shau Valley and onto a
helicopter shuddering from an enemy fusillade. McBride, a Marine Corps
lieutenant during the Vietnam War, had spent two tense days in 1967
trying to lead his seven-man jungle patrol to safety while eluding
North Vietnamese soldiers and their Montagnard trackers. He almost
succeeded.
   
   "But, as the helicopter came in to pick us up, they opened up on
it," McBride recalls. "Everyone between me and my assistant patrol
leader was hit, and the helicopter flipped over...One of the rounds
hit the main hydraulic line, spraying the damn fluid over everything."
   
   That is one of McBride's worst memories of the Vietnam War, which
ended 20 years ago this month. But, unlike many veterans, McBride has
not tried to blot out the gunshots and cries of dying friends.
   
   "Something that traumatic will gnaw at you, one way or another,"
says McBride, 54, who now works as a San Antonio research engineer.
"You have to deal with it."
   
   So, McBride devised a kind of electronic therapy: He began
collecting anecdotal information about the Vietnam War, which he made
available on the Internet. Soon, the details of his own A Shau
experiences will form part of the archive.
   
   "Now, every time I see that light on my optical drive turn on, I
know someone is [dialing in]," McBride says. "That makes me feel
pretty good."
   
   McBride's archive is called the Vietnam Veterans Home Page because
it is part of the Internet's World Wide Web, which presents
information on colorful screens known as home pages. The Vietnam page
is one of several recently created Web pages focusing on war veterans
and their families, including a Korean Conflict page created by the
son of a decorated veteran and a Persian Gulf War page assembled by a
Chicago-area social worker.
   
   A visit to the Vietnam page is a daunting, haunting experience.
Unlike war books that offer edited anecdotes and second-hand
information, McBride's Web page contains raw first-hand accounts. A
section called "Remembrance" evokes a reunion of war comrades with
collections of Vietnam-era snapshots and harrowing combat
reminiscences.
   
   "Veterans have found a voice on the Internet," says Deanna Gail
Shlee, a fiftysomething Phoenix college student and a member of a
four-person "platoon" that assists McBride from their homes in other
states.
   
   "For years, veterans had choked down their experiences and didn't
talk about them because their friends and families didn't understand.
They had been scattered across the country and cut off from each
other," Shlee says. "But now, they can get together as a community.
They can get it all out."
   
   The Vietnam page also has helped the families of traumatized
veterans. McBride recently received a letter that said, in part:
"Three of my uncles fought in Vietnam. They don't talk about it, and I
don't ask. My husband's uncle was killed, and his brother only talks
about it on the anniversary of his death...I would like to thank you
for this information about the men who served their country...I want
my children to learn about the sacrifices they made for us."
   
   Hal Barker, a Dallas carpenter, faced a similar problem: His
father, Edward Lee Barker, was reluctant to discuss his involvement in
the Korean Conflict, including the incident that won him a Silver
Star.
   
   After some digging, Barker learned that on Oct. 7, 1951, his father
attempted a helicopter rescue of a downed pilot amid heavy artillery
fire at the now-famous Heartbreak Ridge. According to the Silver Star
citation, "Major Barker [returned] to base only when it became
apparent that rescue by helicopter was impossible."
   
   Partly as a result of his inquiries, Barker, 47, became obsessed
with the Korean Conflict. He amassed historical documents and casualty
figures, many purchased from the U.S. government. He traveled to Korea
and took dozens of photos. He interviewed hundreds of veterans, most
of whom had never discussed their war experiences in detail. He even
spoke with his father, who consented to a one-time, one-hour
interview.
   
   For the most part, Barker's archive remained hidden from public
view until February, when his Internet provider offered World Wide Web
access. Within 48 hours, Barker had assembled his first web page.
   
   "There had previously been little accessibility to Korean War
data," he says. "If you walk into a bookstore, you see a lot on
Vietnam but little on Korea...I'm trying to develop a central place
for all things related to the Korean War, with my own project as a
springboard."
   
   Grant Szabo, a social worker who works at a Chicago Veterans
Administration hospital, also has used personal resources to assemble
a page for veterans. His reasons are more medical than historical: He
believes that many who participated in the Persian Gulf War now suffer
from war-related ailments collectively known as Gulf War Syndrome.
   
   "The things that veterans told me were disturbing," says Szabo, 26,
who conducted interviews with the veterans as part of a
medical-screening program.
   
   "One soldier had degenerative joint disease. He was only 23...
Another guy was unable to retain anything he learned in college. He
would come into my office and cry." Szabo discovered that online
information about Gulf War Syndrome was spotty, despite its increasing
visibility. So he created a Web archive containing relevant articles,
medical information, government reports and photos sent in by
veterans.
   
   Szabo knew his Gulf War Veteran Resource Pages were being noticed
when he began getting calls and e-mail from the U.S. Senate's veterans
affairs committee and other powerful figures. That notoriety has made
him a bit nervous. As a federal employee, he has to be wary of
offending the U.S. government and careful to avoid a conflict of
interest.
   
   But Szabo continues his online work because he knows he is helping
veterans. "They tell me they are relieved to have this information at
their fingertips," he says. "I've had people say, Everything I've read
on your page describes what I've been going through, and that has
motivated me to get help.'"
   
[Internet Offers New Support Networks for Veterans, Julio
Ojeda-Zapata, St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 23, 1995]

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