A large gathering of supporters welcomed home Mike Garland of Becker over the weekend. They heard his story and opened up their billfolds to earn even more money to fight cancer.

 

Mike, with a well-earned beard - and a well-earned loss of 40 pounds - had just finished his four thousand mile walk through some nasty but beautiful western outback to raise pledged monies to fight cancer. It was a four-month ordeal, one which only one of five hikers achieve.

 

Now home, it was time for his friends and family to embrace him and share the love. More love to fight cancer. It’s been his mission for many years.

 

And the fever has caught on with supporters. 

 

God bless all of you. You are the lifeblood of our friendly small communities.

 

We didn’t know quite what to expect in attending the reunion of Vietnam veterans Saturday at Becker City Park.

 

Might there be 10 - or might there be 200 - who would show up. Did showing up anymore matter?

 

The bigger issue is that they haven’t been invited to “show up” anywhere in the 50 years since the Vietnam conflict.

 

Vietnam veterans were often caught in a crossfire 0of our country’s various revolutions during that era.

 

They performed their duty admirably in a war that was bungled terribly by our federal administration and our military leaders.

 

America was going through all kinds of nerve-wracking social pandemonia - and through it - on the way home - walked our veterans.

 

About 75 showed up for the assembly at City Park.

 

About a dozen stood up to talk about their experiences - Marines, Soldiers, Air Force and Sailors.

 

They appreciated the  praise from our communitys’ leaders. It was well-earned.

 

(And, thanks to the Becker and Big Lake Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Committees and all the others who contributed to the get-together.)

 

Do you realize Vietnam veterans during our 10,000-day war (1961 to 1975) spent more time in the field (fighting), suffered more crippling injuries and received fewer penalties for bad conduct, per soldier, than their counterparts in the Korean War and WWII?

 

That information comes to us from a Big Lake Vietnam Vet, Dale Lais. He has put together a manual entitled, Vietnam, Fact or Fiction, which is a wonderful two-hour read. We’ll deal more with that in the future.

 

But the war is not done with a number of vets we met and talked with Saturday.

 

Gary Stuart, Big Lake, who served in the Air Force, continues his treatments for cancer resulting from contact with Agent Orange.

 

His future is in doubt, as it is with many Vietnam vets from our communities.

 

“Unfortunately, that war will claim a lot more lives than are on the (Vietnam Memorial) Wall,” he said.

 

Our government has to take care of these people. They deserve it for answering the call.

 

God bless them, too.