Tom Herget can still vividly recall walking out to check the mail that Dec. 31, 1972, and breathing a sigh of relief there was nothing from Uncle Sam telling him to report for duty, even though his number had been called the prior year in the Vietnam War draft lottery.
Herget, at that time a West Aurora High School grad in his senior year at the University of Illinois, knew he’d dodged a bullet with number 168. But over the decades he never stopped thinking about those who were not so lucky, especially 14 years later, when a parade honoring Vietnam veterans went right under his fourth floor office in downtown Chicago where he worked as an actuary.
Fast forward to West High’s 50th reunion for the class of ‘68, which Herget organized. As he gave a speech focusing on how historically tumultuous the end of that year had become for the nation, he realized how little was known about those who served during the Vietnam War from this West High class – and how little they had been recognized.
So Herget set about changing all that.
Now retired and determined to acknowledge a long-overdue honor, he spent countless hours identifying 38 Vietnam veterans from his class of ’68 – more than half served in-country in Vietnam – and delivered to each one, or their closest surviving relative, a handwritten letter of gratitude along with a beautiful red, white and blue silver medallion honoring their service on behalf of their alma mater.
Many who lived locally received theirs in person from Herget. Those further away got a surprise letter and the medallion in the mail.
All of them were appreciative, humbled. Some broke down in tears.
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Many had died, some from cancers linked to Agent Orange, others from alcohol-related misfortunes. Too many, he added, were still struggling with life-altering physical or emotional wounds.
“There were times,” Herget admitted, where “I would have to step back for a while” from this project because of the emotional toll it took even on him.
Still, he was far from finished. After all, those he had found were from one class only.
And so Herget, who is chairman of the Alumni Committee of District 129’s A Plus Foundation, went to his peers on the board a year ago with a request that was impossible to turn down.
“How do you say no to this?” asked Ingrid Roney, executive director of West Aurora’s A Plus Foundation, which gave Herget $1,000 toward his mission.
Thus began a three-year project to identify and honor all West Aurora graduates – from 1960 to 1971 – who served during the Vietnam War era.
There are about 400 of them, Herget told me. In addition to the 38 from 1968, 40 have been identified from the class of ‘63 and 83 veterans from ‘65. But plenty more remain to be thanked, even if through a surviving family member. And the A Plus Foundation is determined to find as many as possible.
“No other foundation supports this sort of project,” said Roney. ‘It is amazing what Tom is doing. We are a grassroots foundation with no humongous fundraising events. Tom has taken this to a whole new grassroots level.”
Herget describes this project as a “much-belated, much-earned award.” And from the feedback he’s received so far, much appreciated.
Stan Crouch, in fact, replied that he “will treasure it above any honors I received in the service.”
Tom Hoover told Herget he keeps the medallion in his pocket at all times, “except when I pull it out to show everyone with whom I come into contact.”
Jim Hilderbrand, who lives in Northern California and each year makes a motorcycle trip with hundreds of other bikers across the country to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was given his medallion to a standing ovation a year ago when his class of ’68 met for its 55th reunion.
“It never felt so good to be back home,” the Air Force veteran told his former classmates.
Those accepting the recognitions for a loved one also expressed gratitude. For example, the widow of Scott Brown asked that the award be sent to their daughter who was only 6 when her dad died and “has little memories to hold on to.”
Gina Grable, whose father Bob Alcorn passed away when she was 10, told Herget she plans to frame his letter with the medal, adding she “cannot truly convey with words my deepest appreciation for your kindness.”
Rick Smith, the nephew of Eddie Potteiger, from the class of ‘59, wrote that his uncle never talked about his experience in Vietnam, but “was just starting to open up about it” before he passed away from cancer his peers believe was related to Agent Orange exposure.
East Aurora High School grad Mike DiSantis, who served in Vietnam in 1967-68, accepted the medallion for his cousin, Bill DiSantis, who was killed in action in 1970, five years after he graduated from West High, a tragedy which “devastated” the family, noted Mike.
The medallion for Robert Boynton, who died in 1994, was accepted by his son in Arizona, Robert’s younger brother Tom Boynton of Aurora told me. Robert was struck by enemy shrapnel while working in the Fire Direction Center that, because it plotted and gave coordinates to gunners, had become such a target for the Viet Cong.
According to Tom Boynton, his brother, who contracted hepatitis from the many transfusions he received after this attack that left four of his fellow soldiers dead, “would suffer nightmares periodically for the rest of his life.”
This mission to find and thank every Vietnam veteran really started while the war was still going on, said Herget, who long ago recognized its impact on the trajectory of so many lives, including his own.
With no desire to graduate because “the war had expanded into Cambodia and we all knew there was one employer waiting for you,” Herget said, the first couple years of college he refused to declare a major.
Finally forced by counselors who presented him with a string of choices, Herget begrudgingly picked the first option at the top of the alphabetical list, “which is the only reason” he spent his career as an actuary.
The Vietnam War also changed the course of Bill Wright’s life, he told me from his home in the Indianapolis area. After his mother called in tears to inform her son his Sept. 14 birthday put him at number one in the draft lottery, the ‘68 West High grad joined the Naval Reserve Officer Candidate program at Arizona University, where he was a student, to lessen his chances of being shipped off to the jungles of Vietnam.
Twenty-eight years later, Wright retired as a captain in the Navy after an impressive career in aviation supply that took him from training centers, aircraft carriers and destroyers to four years at the Pentagon.
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While his decision to enlist in officers’ training kept him out of harm’s way, Wright became emotional as we spoke about what those letters and medallions from West Aurora meant. After nearly three decades in the military, he saw up close the difference in the way those returning from the Gulf War were treated from those coming home from Vietnam.
“They all came back with stories to tell but nobody was listening,” Wright noted. “For many of my brethren this may be the only words of thanks that have ever been received.”