Letters pour in for Vietnam tribute
In a letter sent last month to his uncle, 12-year-old Jordan de León wrote that he didn’t want to thank the Vietnam veteran for his military service — he wanted to honor him for it.
“You went to hell and back (in Vietnam). You lost dear friends. But you lived and that is what matters most to me,” Jordan de León wrote, punctuating the letter by telling his uncle, Frank, to think of it as a “long overdue ‘welcome home.’”
Godinez has donated his own time in honor of his uncle, Chief Master Sgt. Guadalupe “Lou” Gonzalez, an Air Force veteran who served three years in Vietnam and died in September from lung cancer attributed to Agent Orange, an herbicide used to defoliate forest areas that caused health disorders for servicemen and civilians. Godinez said South Texas Vietnam veterans need to be recognized before it’s too late.
“It’s about closure. You read a letter where it’s somebody who says ‘I’m going to go with my dad to watch him get acknowledged because he deserves it,’” he said. “To read those letters and know that’s what they’re feeling and getting closure even before the event happens, I think it’s a major milestone.”
No comments:
Post a Comment