As a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 161, Iowa City we were asked to write letters to the Vietnam veterans whose names are on the Wall in Washington, D.C. These letters were to be delivered on Memorial Day 2015 and placed near the name. The envelope was to be left open and visitors were encouraged to read them. This is my letter to Bob Harvey and Willard Friese, Walter’s older brother.
This past March was the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War and the Pentagon is spending nearly 65 million dollars to whitewash the war. From the lies of the Tonkin Gulf incident to the My Lai massacre now dubbed the “My Lai incident”, this report re-writes the history of the Vietnam War to one that those of us who were involved would not recognize.
I would like to mention two young men from Washington County who died in Vietnam. I first became aware of the war when a boy in my Junior class homeroom, Walter Friese, was told that his brother, Willard John Friese, age 19, was killed in Vietnam in March 1966. He had only been in the country 2 months. No one knew what to say to Walter. We had never had anything like this happen to us. Going to ‘Nam’ was supposed to be patriotic. I guess it was not so patriotic to Walter and his family.
To Bob Harvey who graduated with me in 1967-You joined the Marine Corps right after graduation, about the same time that I did. You were always such a fun loving goofball. I remember you at a basketball game a few weeks before you were going to Vietnam. You were so sure of yourself and proud to be going. You made it 10 months before we learned of your death in August 1968.
Willard Friese is on Panel 6 of the Vietnam Wall: Bob Harvey is on Panel 49. Between those two panels, in that span of two years, represents a lot of killing and dying. Over 58,000 military men and women and several million Vietnamese died in that war.
If only I had known then what I know now. I joined the Marine Corps because I thought it was the patriotic thing to do to serve your county. As a woman, I couldn’t be sent to Vietnam to serve. I didn’t think very much about what it meant to be in Vietnam except killing “g--ks”. Oh, the arrogance of it all!
And sadly, 50 years later we haven’t learned much from that experience except to start more endless wars.
Here are some thoughts I wrote about Bob on Memorial Day, a couple of years ago.
Every once in awhile I think about Bob Harvey, a classmate of mine at WHS, who got drafted and went to Vietnam where he got killed in 1968. In retrospect, he surely had a learning disability and couldn't begin to succeed in school. He was a little bit crazy, always laughing or (in class) trying valiently to suppress a laugh, but he could never do it. Teachers would take it personally and he'd end up in detention most days. He was a fun-loving, likable guy who either didn't know how to behave or just couldn't do it.
I remember one time standing at attention on our numbers in PE while Coach Roger Harrington (the "enemy", for non-football players) strolled down the line inspecting the troops (did that bad tradition continue?). Bob Harvey had forgotten his uniform for about the 3rd time in a row. Harrington bellered at him, "Harvey, where's your uniform." Bob yelled back even louder, "Harrington, I forgot it!!" It infuriated Coach Harrington and he slugged Bob hard in the chest, knocking him back a few steps. When he got his balance Bob (who wasn't that big but was pretty tough) ran back up and slugged Coach Harrington back, in the chest, knocking him back a couple of steps. Coach Harrington just stood there looking at him for about 10 seconds thinking of what he wanted to do, thought better of it, and slowly continued walking down the line inspecting the troops again. We watched all this out of the corners of our eyes. Doug Hayes was at attention next to me and we both whispered, "HOLY SHIT!" out of the corners of our mouths simultaneously. I believe that if Bob Harvey had returned alive from Vietnam he would never have had to buy his own drinks in Washington for the rest of his life, or at least when I was back visiting.
Anyway, I guess because of upcoming Memorial Day, Bob Harvey came to mind tonight and I started wondering, as I have many times before, exactly how he got killed.so I googled "how did Robert Harvey die in Vietnam?" and this Marine-related link popped up. He was wounded in a firefight, and two guys were helping him to the med-evac zone and they tripped an explosive device and it killed all three of them. It's not a lot of info, but it's good there's at least some minimal record of what happened and an expression of appreciation from someone who served with him.
Mary Engel (Martin)
April 24, 2015
As a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 161, Iowa City we were asked to write letters to the Vietnam veterans whose names are on the Wall in Washington, D.C. These letters were to be delivered on Memorial Day 2015 and placed near the name. The envelope was to be left open and visitors were encouraged to read them. This is my letter to Bob Harvey and Willard Friese, Walter’s older brother.
This past March was the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War and the Pentagon is spending nearly 65 million dollars to whitewash the war. From the lies of the Tonkin Gulf incident to the My Lai massacre now dubbed the “My Lai incident”, this report re-writes the history of the Vietnam War to one that those of us who were involved would not recognize.
I would like to mention two young men from Washington County who died in Vietnam. I first became aware of the war when a boy in my Junior class homeroom, Walter Friese, was told that his brother, Willard John Friese, age 19, was killed in Vietnam in March 1966. He had only been in the country 2 months. No one knew what to say to Walter. We had never had anything like this happen to us. Going to ‘Nam’ was supposed to be patriotic. I guess it was not so patriotic to Walter and his family.
To Bob Harvey who graduated with me in 1967-You joined the Marine Corps right after graduation, about the same time that I did. You were always such a fun loving goofball. I remember you at a basketball game a few weeks before you were going to Vietnam. You were so sure of yourself and proud to be going. You made it 10 months before we learned of your death in August 1968.
Willard Friese is on Panel 6 of the Vietnam Wall: Bob Harvey is on Panel 49. Between those two panels, in that span of two years, represents a lot of killing and dying. Over 58,000 military men and women and several million Vietnamese died in that war.
If only I had known then what I know now. I joined the Marine Corps because I thought it was the patriotic thing to do to serve your county. As a woman, I couldn’t be sent to Vietnam to serve. I didn’t think very much about what it meant to be in Vietnam except killing “g--ks”. Oh, the arrogance of it all!
And sadly, 50 years later we haven’t learned much from that experience except to start more endless wars.
Sincerely,
Mary Martin
Member of Veterans For Peace
Chapter 161, Iowa City
Washington, IA
Phillip McConnell
I remember one time standing at attention on our numbers in PE while Coach Roger Harrington (the "enemy", for non-football players) strolled down the line inspecting the troops (did that bad tradition continue?). Bob Harvey had forgotten his uniform for about the 3rd time in a row. Harrington bellered at him, "Harvey, where's your uniform." Bob yelled back even louder, "Harrington, I forgot it!!" It infuriated Coach Harrington and he slugged Bob hard in the chest, knocking him back a few steps. When he got his balance Bob (who wasn't that big but was pretty tough) ran back up and slugged Coach Harrington back, in the chest, knocking him back a couple of steps. Coach Harrington just stood there looking at him for about 10 seconds thinking of what he wanted to do, thought better of it, and slowly continued walking down the line inspecting the troops again. We watched all this out of the corners of our eyes. Doug Hayes was at attention next to me and we both whispered, "HOLY SHIT!" out of the corners of our mouths simultaneously. I believe that if Bob Harvey had returned alive from Vietnam he would never have had to buy his own drinks in Washington for the rest of his life, or at least when I was back visiting.
http://marines.togetherweserved.com/usmc/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=TributeExt&ID=31146