A responsiblity for Rotarians is to take actions that are beneficial to all concerned. Many of our local club members have developed knowledge and insights that have this potential for being beneficial.  This page reflects some of that knowledge:

Tony Shaw is a Viet Nam Veteran who participates in the Veterans Viet Nam Restoration Project. This past April, he joined six other veterans and some of their family members in a trip to A Luoi in the A Shau Valley of Viet Nam.  They worked along side local Vietnamese in building a three room school and traveled around the area they last saw during the War.  The region is normally off limits to foreigners since it is near the border with Laos and is inhabited by an indigenous tribe, the Pacos.  

 

Excerpts from Tony’s comments:

I have to say  that my time in A Luol has been a profoundly healing experience for all of us vets; indeed the experience of a lifetime.  These people, our former enemies, responded to us in the warmest possible manner.  We became friends. Their forgiveness and friendship was what I was looking for when I came here, and that is what I found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from Tony’s Journal:

In Tay Ninh City we happened on a restaurant where we had a wonderful lunch.  The woman who owned the place and served us was a former VC soldier.  She began her service in 1969 at the age of 14 and served until the end of the war in 1975.  She was highly decorated and is now honored as one of the six biggest VC heroes in the region in which she lives.  She is the only woman hero.

 

She had lived in the tunnels.  We determined that she would have been shooting at my tanks and me while I was trying my best to kill her.  She said that her unit had felt very threatened by the awesome fire power of our tanks and machine guns.  She was very gracious and smiling all the time and before we left she got out all her medals and pinned them on.  [See the attached picture.]  We hugged many, many times.  She said that war is horrible and that she is always for peace now.  I told her I was too. She was ecstatic when she learned what the team had done in A Luoi.  We never cried, but I noticed when we were leaving that her eyes began to water.  Mine did as well.

 

Later, the other veteran who was traveling with me said it was the most moving thing he had seen in his life.  If opposing warriors who wanted only to kill and maim each other at a young age, could forgive like this, there is hope for the world.  

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