Shared stories

Shots from the cannon of an Abrams tank sent shock waves and the scent of gunpowder toward bleachers about 500 feet away, where Iraq and Vietnam war veterans sat.

“Boom! You can always tell it’s coming when you see the red flash in front,” Spc. Dustin Hassler warned people near him.

Members of Hassler’s modernday infantry and their retired Vietnam-era counterparts compared and contrasted equipment and shared stories and memories of combat Tuesday during the 4th Infantry Division alumni association’s annual reunion at Fort Carson. Vietnam vets and their families were fitted for flak jackets and helmets and invited to try some of the powerful automatic weapons of today’s Army.

The infantry’s Vietnam vets have been getting together annually since 1999.

Greg Rollins didn’t know his platoon leader, 1st Sgt. Don White, was alive until the reunions began. White almost had his leg blown off and was injured five times in Vietnam. Now, he attends the reunion every year.

Unlike today’s soldiers, Rollins said he received no recognition or acknowledgment for

his service on his flight back from Vietnam. When he got home, he took off his uniform and never put it on again.

“There’s still a lot of guys we contacted that won’t come (to the reunion) because they don’t want anything to do with the military,” Rollins said of some of the draftees he served with.

Rollins said this is his fourth trip to Fort Carson since the reunions began, and part of his motivation is to let today’s soldiers know “we’re behind them.”

“The general population is more supportive of the troops this time around even if they don’t support the war,” he said.

That doesn’t mean serving now is necessarily easier, however.

Hassler’s battalion is set to go back to Iraq late this winter or early spring. During his first 12-month tour, Hassler lost people close to him. He said Tuesday he was eager to

learn what the Vietnam vets went through and how they dealt with it .

According to Fort Carson spokesman Maj. Mike Humphreys, three of four soldiers in Hassler’s brigade have served at least one tour in Iraq.

“We have a lot of people going through that mental warfare,” Hassler said. “I know I had a lot of life-altering changes and experiences. If I was able to sit down with them and learn how they were able to cope with it, I know that I’d be able to cope with it a lot better.”

Vietnam vet Rod Westbrook knows about tough battles. He lost half his company in one day, suffering six casualties a day for the rest of that March in 1969.

Westbrook and his platoon were dropped near the Laotian border to assess damage to an enemy supply “superhighway” hit by B-52 bombers.

“Those bombs, all they did was make them mad and they took it out on us,” Westbrook said.

The Army has changed a lot since he left in the 1970s, but the bond remains between soldiers of different eras, he said.

“There aren’t words to explain it, but once you’ve been there, then boy you know exactly what we’re talking about.

“It’s a bit of a brotherhood, baptism by fire kind of thing. It’s a large, large fraternity.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0366 or khari.johnson@gazette.com

HONORS

David McNerney will be honored Thursday with the rededication of barracks in his name. According to the 4th Infantry Division’s Web site, McNerney, who earned the Medal of Honor, took command of his company after he was injured by a grenade blast that blew him off his feet.