LIHU‘E – Kaua‘i was given an opportunity to pay tribute to its citizens as well as all other soldiers who were involved in the Vietnam War during the Vietnam Stand Down, Saturday night at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center on Kapule
LIHU‘E – Kaua‘i was given an opportunity to pay tribute to its citizens as well as all other soldiers who were involved in the Vietnam War during the Vietnam Stand Down, Saturday night at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center on Kapule Highway.
Spearheaded by Bill Honjiyo, a Vietnam veteran, Honjiyo explained that Saturday’s event celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Vietnam conflict that divided the nation and whose combatants did not get the proper “Welcome Home” when they returned from what has been described as one of the longest wars the nation has been involved in.
Honjiyo explained that in the days of the fighting, a stand down as a “break in the action -” a time when soldiers had an opportunity to shower, get a fresh change of clothes, hot meals, and tend to the more mundane chores of maintaining equipment.
But, before anything was done, the first chore was to remember those who were killed in action.
Along this tradition, Vietnam veterans Johnny Rabasa and Maurice “Joe” Munechika conducted a special service in which tribute was paid to 13 of Kaua‘i’s sons who left to serve in Vietnam and never returned.
This was their welcome home, the 30th anniversary of the end of the war, the event eclipsing a national event, Armed Forces Day which has been declared to take place on the third Saturday of May.
An emotional Munechika, wiping tears from his eyes, asked members of the audience, many of them Viet Nam veterans and their families, to join them in a special tribute to these men who left to fight at a time when Kaua‘i only had 40,000 people.
Each of the names of the 13 was followed by the toll of a bell in the hall that was deathly silent, an American flag quietly sweeping in the calmness.
PFC Francisco Conception, Jr., Capt. Miles T. Tanimoto, Platoon Sgt. Roque Perpetua, Jr., Sgt. Hilario Leanio, Jr., PFC Clyde Joseph Caires, PFC Gary Noburo Kawamura, Lance Cpl Stanley W. Woodward, Spec. 4 John Levinthol, Jr., Sgt. Francis Louis Souza, PFC Allen Lanui Lewis, PFC Rodney Wayne Pavao, SS Gaylord Kila Defries, and PFC Thomas Anthony Salvatore.
Each name was followed by the tolling of the bell. The soldiers came from Hanalei to Waimea and represented soldiers from 18 to 30 years of age.
In the audience, Mrs. Yoshiko Kawamura, one of the few Gold Star mothers on the island, quietly sat with one of her sons as each of the names were read in the echo of the bell.
And, there were more as Munechika introduced Dr. William Shankel.
Dr. Shankel is a Board Certified Surgeon and a Fellow-American College of Surgeons who has practiced in California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Hilo, and now with the Kaua‘i Medical Group.
Flying A-4 Skyhawks as a Naval Aviator during the South Viet Nam Cross for Gallantry.
Dr. Shankel also holds The Prisoner of War Medal.
He was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton for eight years.
Hartwell Blake, the master of ceremonies for the evening, also introduced Duc Phung, the proprietor of Pho Kaua‘i, a Vietnamese noodle shop in the Rice Shopping Center.
Blake, who said Phung speaks very little English, said Phung was born in Saigon and served with the Army South Vietnam for 12 years beginning in 1963.
Phung was commissioned in 1972, and attained the rank of Daiuyi, or Captain. During that time, he fought alongside American Rangers, Airborne soldiers, and Special Forces. He also recalls fighting with Blackhorse, or the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Two months following the war in Vietnam, he was jailed along with other who fought alongside the Americans. His incarceration lasted 16 years in conditions that were so bad he, at times, asked his captors to kill him, Blake’s voice quaking with emotion as he described one of Kaua‘i’s newcomers.
Phung was released in 1991 on the condition that he leave the country, never to return. That brought him to San Jose where his sister lived, and later, Phung relocated to Houston to join his brother.
In 2004, Phung moved to Kaua‘i where he opened Pho Kaua‘i with his wife’s family.
Phung is married with three children, a son Nhan who lives in Garden Grove, his daughter Stephanie who is in Houston, and Cindy who works in the noodle shop.
He also has three grandchildren – all American citizens.
The somber program continued as Blake introduced Fred DeBusca, Commander of the National Guard contingent from Kaua‘i that was activated in 1967 for service in Vietnam.
DeBusca was 48 years old, and was the oldest rifle company commander in the Army of the United States. The average Captain in the Army, at that time, was 22 years old.
Despite being old enough to be the father of his fellow captains, age did not limit DeBusca’s service.
He was awarded the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Bronze Star for meritorious service, and the Air Medal for his participation in combat air operations.
The credentials of the night’s participants continued with legislative representatives adding their tribute to the honor and duty extended by the Viet Nam Veterans.
A special cake scribed with “Welcome Home” was at the center of a special display board festooned with photographs and set off by candles, the cake symbolizing the welcome home the veterans never received.
In closing the program, Munechika asked everyone to shake the hand of a veteran and thank them for their service in the name of freedom.
“This is the first time in 35 years that someone said ‘Thank You’ to me,” Val Tsuchiya said as he watched the people line up for the evening’s meal.
- Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, 245-3681 (ext. 253) and dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
