John Schmidt, Former Vietnam Vet, 1st Cavalry Div. in 1970

Douglas, my wife and I attended your play last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for coming to an out of the way spot like Storm lake , Iowa.  I am a 100% disabled Viet Nam vet and I really appreciated your one armed portion of the play. I did not lose my arm, however I was hit in the neck by shrapnel and lost the use of my left arm due to nerve damage( I was left handed too).

Over the last 50 years, wow, that sounds like a long time ago, some things have gotten better and some worse, I got a little use in my arm but still can't bend my elbow or turn my palm up, but I did get some feeling in it and I can hold things in my hand.  The rodeo with the VA was quite a ride. I went from 100% down to 70% because after about a year healing and therapy, I  got a job. Eventually I discovered various other ailments and worked my way back up to 100% disability and it was a 30 year struggle with the VA, thankfully the DAV is a great support for us. So it turned out the shrapnel not only severed nerves to my left arm but also to my left diaphram and my lung atrophied to about 50% of normal, 30% rating.

Of course PTSD is a problem for anyone with combat experience and I have that. I remember the Doctor asking me how often I thought about combat and my injuries. I told him every time I try to button my shirt or put on my pants on with one hand, so I got a 50% rating for PTSD. Then of course most of us VN vets also brought back the gift that keeps on giving, agent orange, ischemic heart disease, 50% more so they finally figured I was bad enough to warrant 100% again.

Just for informational purposes, I was with the 1st Cavalry Div. in 1970, I was a combat medic and only lasted 5 months in country which I guess was about normal for medics. Our battalion was part of the Cambodian Incursion in May 1970, Kent State riots time, because of Nixons expanding the war. My company went into Cambodia about 150 strong and came out 60 days later 40 strong, from a company to a large platoon. several KIA's but mostly WIA's.

So I officially retired at age 54 on disability with a wonerful wife, who has supported me throughout this trip, and 3 wonerful kids. A bright spot to this story is that early retirement and the progression of the internet in the last 20 years opened a new door. As you are probably aware most of us Vietnam vets just wanted to get "back to the world" and get on with our lives and due to the rotation of replacements one or two guys at a time would come in and one or two would leave, most of the guys never stayed connected once they got home.

It was a bad memory and  we just wanted normal again. But back in 2006 I had lots of free time so I started searching, put my name out in 1st Cav sites and guest books and search the web. About mid Feb 2006 I recieved 2 seperate emails from guys that thought I might have been their medic. So we emailed a few times and figured out yeah, we had been together 36 years ago.

Finally one of us got the nerve to actually call the others and talk, that was hard! But we continued visiting and brainstorming names of guys, mostly nicknames and tryng to remember where they were from. We eventually located and spoke with about 2 dozen uf us that went into Cambodia together in our platoon. The next obvious step was to have a reunion, mind you not one of these guys had ever made contact with another in 36 years, but we were brothers and would have died for each other back then. We found guys that worked on the same cosruction site and never new it, two guys that were both radio operators and best of friends lived less than 50 miles apart and never new it. Anyhow we decided Nashville would be a good spot, lots of good old boys in Nam, and we booked a hotel. We had over 24 guys and wives that first reunion, you can't imagine the tears and stories and hugs that weekend. We made the Nashville news and TV "Vietnam Vets reunite after 36 years" the mayor gave us a key to the city, the local American Legion and VFW fed us, and even Hooters came to our hotel and fed us one meal .

So here we are 2020 and times have surely changed for the best, everywhere we go we are welcomed and thanked, we continue to have at least 2 reunions a year in different locations, some we go to others we can't but it keeps going on, a few guys want nothing to do with it and we understand that too. We have the names and addresses of almost 500 guys that served in our company from 1965 to 1972. I recognized your bagpipe song from " We Were Soldiers" we have guys in our reunion that made that battle at Lz Xray to reinforce  Col Moore  and the 2/7 Cav., we were B co 2/5 Cav.

Last spring I was able to make an Honor Flight to DC and again the reception and welcome was overwhelming, I think there were probably over 3000 people at Dulls to recieve us. School classes ,boy scouts, girl scouts, 4h clubs and just everyday ordinary folk that come out for as many honor flights as they can to give us that WELCOME HOME and THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE and SACRIFICE.

So in closing, Thank You for your contribution to our welcome home and support!

John Schmidt, Former Vietnam Vet, 1st Cavalry Div. in 1970

PS. My dad would have enjoyed your play also. He was a WWII vet 3rd Infantry Div. He spent 3 years from North Africa to Italy (Anzio), South,France, the Bulge, the Vosages. See attachment. We got his dogtag back from a Frenchman 2 years ago, lost 70 years earlier.