Sean C. Morgan
When Dennis Bechtel attended a reunion of veterans in September, who had been stationed at Tuy Hoa Airbase during the Vietnam War, it was a chance to catch up with his brothers in arms, to honor their service and to honor veterans – something that remains important to him every day.
The biannual reunion, first held in 1995, was held in Dayton, Ohio, Sept. 3 to Sept. 8.
“One of the neatest things about this reunion is I saw a guy I hadn’t seen in 43 years,” Bechtel said. He was one of three others at the event with whom Bechtel served at Tuy Hoa.
Bechtel was an air traffic controller who was sent to Vietnam in September 1969 as a munitions specialist. He had enlisted in the Air Force in September 1964 at age 17, got married, and had a child. After one of those long, complicated and personal stories, he took an early out, but then re-enlisted at a radar site in North Carolina, where he cross-trained in munitions.
In Vietnam, he transported bombs and munitions from the bomb dump to the flight line for about three months when he was asked to do munitions verification. Bad ammunition had been coming into Vietnam at the time, and he was attached to an Army unit to check incoming munitions.
That took him to Vung Ro Bay. He kept getting assignments to Army convoys after that.
That’s one of the reasons his three buddies have been so special to Bechtel, he said. He spent most of his time away from the airbase and really didn’t know anybody there.
Bechtel came home just short of a year in Vietnam at the beginning of demilitarization. He ended up at a Boron, Calif. radar site.
His brother, Ron Bechtel, also served during that period – in Florida, California and Germany.
After his honorable discharge as a sergeant in January 1972, the public response to returning veterans was so bad that he had to lie about where he had been, telling prospective employers that he had been a beach bum.
“I lost my sense of pride serving my country,” said Bechtel, who came from a military family. His father was a World War II veteran and his grandfather served in World War I. Bechtel’s son did two tours in Iraq, and he had relatives throughout his family history serving during wartimes.
“I got out because of Vietnam and decided I wanted to spend my life doing something else because it looked like the never-ending war,” Bechtel said.
After his discharge, he lived in Imperial Beach and went to school at San Diego State. He worked in a shipyard, and following an accident, became a draftsman. Someone had told him he could become a technical illustrator because of his skill in drawing.
In 1979, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in graphic communications, married Suzan and in December, moved to the Sweet Home area. He went to work for a small advertising company as a graphic designer. Off and on, he worked for a water and wastewater engineering firm, from 1981 to 1984, as an illustrator and then as a marketing manager. When the company relocated to Minnesota, he didn’t want to go; so he hung up his shingle and opened an advertising agency in Albany.
After learning that the Linn-Benton Community College graphic design program was out of date, he got involved and joined the advisory committee. Later he started teaching part time. He learned his position could be full time if he earned his master’s degree, so he went to Oregon State University, juggling a crazy schedule that included going to school, teaching part time, running an advertising agency and occasionally seeing his family.
With his background, he eventually went full-time teaching and became program coordinator in the early 1990s and then department chairman. He retired from LBCC around 2002.
“I just started volunteering and helping where I could, getting really involved with the Elks and just kind of enjoying life,” Bechtel said.
Bechtel is a past exalted ruler with the Sweet Home Elks Lodge, and he has served as district deputy exalted ruler with the Elks district.
He also serves on the Toy Hoa reunion board and will attend again in Rapid City, N.D., in 2015. He started attending during the third event, in 2001, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The September reunion drew 105 veterans, with 51 attending for the first time, Bechtel said. Total attendance was 171.
Dr. Elaine Tripi, Ph.D., of Howell, Mich., spoke to a large audience about post traumatic stress disorder and its effects on the individual, the spouse, the children and others. At the end of the presentation, she fielded questions for about an hour and remained through the next morning to talk to anyone who might have questions.
An auction, raised $3,466 for future reunions and relief for veterans who cannot afford to travel tot he reunions, which are open to any Vietnam veterans. One softball was sold seven times at a previous reunion in Seattle and then nine times at the Dayton reunion, raising $480. The softball was presented to retired Air Force Col. James C. Harding, and he returned it so it could be sold again.
Bechtel has enjoyed “not only being a part of reuniting with war buddies but seeing the others reunite with their buddies, to talk and remember some of the good times that had been blanked form your mind, like the R&R trip to Australia.”
He recalled going to Australia on leave and slipping into the officers lines with lieutenants and captains. His buddy was worried they’d be “busted.”
“There is a sense of healing when you’re there, and it helps to remember you’re not alone,” Bechtel said. It helps bring that sense that pervades “Band of Brothers,” a 10-part mini-series about a unit in the European Theater of World War II, “a sense of belonging to a group you could have pride in.”
That sense of pride is important to Vietnam veterans after the poor welcome they had coming home. Bechtel started finding that pride years ago when someone recommended he attend the Veterans Day Parade in Albany. He wore a camouflage shirt, with his medals and ribbons. High-ranking people saluted him, and he saluted them back. People thanked him for his service and shook his hand, and someone invited him onto a passing truck.
Hearing applause gives something back, Bechtel said.
“I would highly recommend that anybody that’s dealing with that wear something distinguishes you as a Vietnam veteran,” Bechtel said.