“If They Want to Enlist, Tell ‘Em to Do it Now”

Over a comfortable table at the history museum in Cherryvale, resident Arland Brown recalled how he entered the military in 1968: “Well, we were going to get drafted and Mrs. Lewis, the draft lady over at Independence (KS), she called my mom and said, ‘if they want to enlist in anything, tell ‘em to do it now. I’ll wait until Sunday to mail the letters for their draft. But Monday, they’re in the Army, they’re in the military.’ So that’s what we did.”  Brown served in the Army Reserves from 1968-1970 and this spring spoke with Mike Wood at the Cherryvale Historical Museum located in Montgomery County in southeast Kansas. 

Brown was one of 99 Vietnam War veterans interviewed for the Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War initiative, a project developed by Humanities Kansas to honor and preserve the memories of the men and women who served and to recognize the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Eleven communities participated including Altoona, Kansas City (KS), Basehor, Cherryvale, Hays, Holton, Howard, Hutchinson, Lincoln, Tonganoxie, and Topeka. Copies of those interviews will be preserved at the local museum or library, at the Kansas State Historical Society, and, for some, at the Library of Congress through their special Veterans Oral History project.

A member of the Cherryvale Museum’s board of directors, Wood interviewed seven Vietnam War veterans. “Some of the interviewees entered the armed forces shortly after graduating from Cherryvale High School. Some enlisted. Others were drafted. Some were ‘in country,’ while others served in naval capacities or as medical staff in nearby countries. All had a lifetime of living within the Cherryvale area,” he shared. 

Alan Read, Army Reserve, served in Vietnam from 1968-1969. During his interview, he recalled “…There was an Army Reserve nearby in Independence, and that’s where we joined…We were lucky in the fact that we kind of knew each other. We had, I think, three or four sets of brothers in the same unit, cousins, in-laws, brothers-in-law, things like that. And in one case, there was a whole bunch of ‘em that [later] worked at the Independence Cement Plant…They all knew each other from work, stuff like that. Or we knew each other from school or college or whatever, junior college.”  

In a separate interview, Terry Wood shared something similar: “…[When I got back] most of the people that I was running with were people that I served with.” Terry Wood was in the Army Reserves from 1968-1969.

Nowadays, Mike Wood shared, there’s a group of local veterans that still get together and have breakfast every week in Independence, at the Down Home restaurant. 

For Wood, and others serving on the museum’s board of directors, they started this oral history project to honor those who served during Vietnam, even though Wood did not. “During the sixties and seventies, I was ‘state side.’ I was on a college campus and then teaching in a public school. In fact, at the time, I was living in the midst of many who were ‘anti-war’…It took years for veterans and for people like me to process and reconcile our differences… “ After receiving the good news that the museum had been selected to participate in the Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War initiative, he spent the first few months “reading, examining maps, and watching documentaries. I began listening more closely to friends and family members who had served in various branches of the military during the Korean and Vietnam wars. I was in unfamiliar territory.”  

But soon enough, he developed a plan and made arrangements with veterans to come in one at a time to be interviewed and set up a comfortable space for the two of them to engage. Each of Wood’s interviews with veterans began with a map of Vietnam, highlighting trails, harbors, and battle sites. Veterans answered basic questions and then Wood encouraged the veterans to tell the memories they wanted others to know about their service. 

“Kansas is flat and dry,” shared Tom Mahaffey during his interview. Mahaffey, Marine Corps, served in Vietnam from 1968-1969. “Vietnam is wet, damp, and heavy vegetation. Heavy vegetation. Everything that you used was on your back. You humped it on your back, and most of the time you didn’t have time to get a tent or anything else. You had MREs, which is meals that you carried with you, and you got resupplied out there in the field with those and just kept on moving. We might stay one place two or three days, a week. And then we was moving to another place…”

Don Richardson, U.S. Navy, who served from 1972-1976, recalled how—to this day—music can still trigger memories from Vietnam: “…There’s songs, like for instance, that song by Gordon Lightfoot, ‘Sundown.’ Every time I hear that I’m in the berth area of my ship. I remember the first time I heard that song over the radio, and that’s where I was at.”

But the songs that always got a standing ovation at the service club? For Allan Johnson’s recollection, it was “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” by The Animals and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul, and Mary.” Johnson served in the Air Force from 1968-1972.

“This has been an incredible experience,” Mike Wood wrote in his project summary. Along with the oral history project, Wood worked with museum president Carl Staton to create a special exhibition highlighting the local Vietnam War experience and hosted an event in March for the public to learn more about these stories. 

Glen Lewis shared his Vietnam War story with the Bashor Historical Society Museum. Image courtesy of the Basehor Historical Society Museum.

Additional local exhibitions and information highlighting the Vietnam Veterans oral histories can be found at the Altoona Public Library, American Legion Post 213 in Kansas City, Basehor Historical Museum Society, Ellis County Historical Society in Hays, Howard Benson Museums in Howard, Jackson County Historical Museum in Holton, Lincoln County Historical Society in Lincoln, Reno County Historical Society in Hutchinson, Tonganoxie Community Historical Museum, and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Topeka.   

Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War oral history initiative—in Cherryvale and across the state—was made possible by support Humanities Kansas received from the David Woods Kemper Veterans Foundation and with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Oral histories were collected from men and women serving in the Army, Navy, Army National Guard, Air Force, and Marines. An earlier Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War initiative was conducted in 2017-2018 with 12 communities interviewing 74 Vietnam War veterans in Abilene, Emporia, Jetmore, Lawrence, Leawood, Newton, Onaga, Overland Park, Sabetha, Salina, Winfield, and Wichita. Watch a video about the 2018 project.

A third phase with 10 more Kansas communities is planned but has currently been suspended because of the Department of Government Efficiency’s termination of funding for Humanities Kansas and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2025.  

Julie Mulvihill, executive director of Humanities Kansas shared, “There is a sense of urgency with this project. Of the approximately 60,000 veterans currently living in Kansas, nearly 36% are from the Vietnam War era. Their stories and experiences have largely been left untold. We’ve learned that many Kansas communities want to ‘do something’ to honor them and the sacrifices they made for our country. Oral history projects, like Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War, empower the veterans to tell their stories of service, secure in the knowledge that the nation cares, their service did not go unnoticed, and that their memories will be available for their family, future students, and teachers.”

Join the Movement of Ideas

• VISIT Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War exhibitions in Basehor, Hutchinson, and Tonganoxie. 
• WATCH a video about HK’s 2018 Kansas Stories of the Vietnam War project. 
• BRING Murl Riedel’s Speakers Bureau presentation “A New Generation of Veterans: Stories From Iraq and Afghanistan” to your community for free. Find out how.
• EXPLORE veterans’ stories on the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project website.