Legion Family provides long-overdue thank you

During a 20-year career in the U.S. Army spanning from 1966 to 1986, Paul Cibolski did two tours in Vietnam during the war. Following his military service, Cibolski said he worked at the front gates leading into Fort Knox in Kentucky.

“I actually saw a gentleman one day who came through the gates, and he handed his ID card,” Cibolski said. “I noticed he’d been medically discharged in 1969, and I said ‘thank you for your service.’

“He started crying, right there in his car. And I said ‘I hope I didn’t say something wrong.’ He said ‘no.’ But he said ‘you’re the first person who’s ever said that to me.’ That’s unbelievable. And this was like 2005 … 40 years after the time. That’s why this means a lot.”

“This” was Hardin American Legion Post 113’s second annual Vietnam Era Veterans Honors Dinner on March 28 in Elizabethtown, Ky. Legion Family members and the community joined together to honor well over 400 Vietnam-era veterans and their families with a dinner, gifts and an opportunity for the veterans to hear the words “thank you.”

Vietnam veteran Robert Carr, who deployed to Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970, attended the dinner with his sister. “After 50 years … it feels good to be honored,” he said. “When we came back, you didn’t even want to tell people you were in the service. You were harassed and everything else.”

Carr has seen a change in the way the U.S. military is supported back home. “When we went to ‘Nam there was all that protesting going on,” he said. “To me, there’s just been a big attitude change. Ever since then, everyone who’s served is being patted on the back for what they did. And that’s good.”

Event Coordinator John Saunders, who was post commander during the inaugural dinner in 2018, said the idea for honoring Vietnam veterans on a large scale came about from post member John Crow following President Donald Trump proclaiming March 29 at Vietnam War Veterans Day.

The post put its first dinner together in March 2018, and though there was no official count, Saunders believes that last year’s dinner served approximately 400 veterans and their families. This year’s dinner – consisting of pulled pork, roast beef, chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls and desserts – served as both a dinner, thank you and opportunity for the veterans to interact with each other.

“I did not want people to get up and make speeches and such,” Saunders said. “I wanted (the veterans) to be welcomed home through a receiving line, provide them a fine meal, and let the veterans interact with like peers for the camaraderie of each other.”

The receiving line included American Legion Family members, local and state government officials, law enforcement and a large contingent of active-duty military personnel from nearby Fort Knox – some whom assisted with serving food.

Fort Knox Garrison Commander Patrick Kuane was one of several officers from the base who stood in the receiving line. “It’s an honor to be here today because we owe it to them to recognize them for the sacrifice and the commitment they gave to our country in a very long and a very hard war,” he said. “All of these (veterans), they won’t say they’re heroes because they say the heroes didn't come home. But we know what a lot of these veterans have been through, and we owe it to them to give them thanks. And I also wanted to recognize the families, too.”

Also in the receiving line was Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton, a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of American Legion Post 23 in Bowling Green, Ky.

“I came last year, and I had another event so I got here late and I missed shaking most of these folks’ hands,” Hampton said. “I’m especially sensitive to Vietnam vets. I’m old enough to remember the Vietnam War, and I remember the treatment when I was a kid. I thought it was grossly unfair. Whether you believe in the war or not, these men and women answered their country’s call. They should never have been treated the way they were treated.

“So when there’s something for Vietnam vets I try to be there just to honor them and welcome them home. This is the kind of welcome they should have received back in the (1970s).”

Hampton said Post 113’s effort “just shows the hearts that I see in almost every veteran I meet. They still have a drive to serve others. It shows where their hearts are."

Department of Kentucky Commander Mike Moses, himself a U.S. Army Vietnam veteran, stood in the receiving line as hundreds of veterans and their guests arrived. “The first thing out of my mouth is ‘welcome home,’” he said. “And to their spouses, I say ‘thank you for your support,’ because our veterans couldn’t do what they do without the support of their spouses. Things like this mean a lot to these veterans. Some of them don’t get thanked.”

Moses had high praise for his department’s largest American Legion post. “Each time they’ve done this (dinner) there’s been hundreds and hundreds of people, and people are coming from 100, 200 miles away,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier with the post, its leadership and its members. The entire post family, everybody up and helps out and makes this thing a big success.”

Saunders said the effort couldn’t have come together without the post’s entire Legion Family. Unit 113 President Jan Fulkerson said more than 25 American Legion Auxiliary members assisted with the effort, primarily assisting with providing desserts. The hard work put in by the post’s Legion Family was worth it.

“I had a gentleman thank me for helping out tonight, and I said ‘no, thank you for your service,’” Fulkerson said. “They really appreciate this. It just puts a smile on your face.”

Past National Auxiliary President Virginia Hobbs, a member of Post 113’s Auxiliary unit, also was there to help out – and say thanks. “The way our (military was) treated when they came back … they needed some type of closure. Some sort of a welcome. People acknowledging the contributions they made,” she said. “And this is our way of doing it.”

Hobbs said that at the 2018 dinner veterans “sat down and they talked. They shared their story, their experiences. They wound up meeting people again that they had seen years and years ago when they were young and serving overseas. It made a meaningful experience, them being here.”

Saunders said the cost of the 2018 event was around $7,000; this year that number was around $14,000. In addition to the food, veterans also received commemorative coins. The costs were covered by donations from corporations and local businesses, as well as a pistol raffle conducted by the post that raised thousands of dollars.

Saunders said the dinner makes it a point to honor all veterans of the Vietnam era, not just “boots-on-the-ground veterans” who served in Vietnam. “As servicemembers, we do not choose our assignments,” he said. “Veterans in that time period and era were all basically treated the same, whether they came back from Vietnam, or they came back from Korea or wherever.”

Saunders said Hardin Post 113 will continue to support the Vietnam-era veterans dinner “until we move it to the next generation for Desert Storm/Desert Shield.” Seeing the smiles that the current incarnation of the dinner elicits from its honored guests makes the massive undertaking well worth the time spent on it.

“I’m not a Vietnam-era veteran, but I’m real close,” said Saunders, who served in the Army from 1976 to 1997. “I know the treatment they received. I feel good about the work that we did when you see the happiness. Some people waited in line last year for hours, and I went out and spoke with those people that were in line. They were happy. And I was happy.”