Exhibit honors Iowa’s Vietnam War veterans

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the towering Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island in downtown Cedar Rapids, a tribute to Eastern Iowans who fought and too-often died in Vietnam is taking shape.

Veterans Memorial Commission assistant director Teri Van Dorston was inspired by the veterans who walk through the building every day - they come to visit the offices of Midwest Military Outreach and the Iowa Veterans Welcome Center - and she wanted to honor their stories.

The result of months of work to make that happen will open in the building's George Hamman Gallery on Tuesday with a Veterans Day reception. The exhibit, 'Vietnam: An Untold Narrative,” will remain on display for two years.

When she first took over the Eastern Iowa All-Veterans Memorial Museum, housed on the first floor of the building, Van Dorston quickly realized her original plan to give each major American conflict a wall in the museum's two galleries wouldn't work for Vietnam.

'It's Vietnam,” she says. 'Sometimes, just the word can send chills down your spine.”

Navy veteran Donald Karr was the first person to propose the exhibit when Van Dorston was renovating the museum.

'When we got back from Vietnam, we were shunned,” he says. 'Everybody went in the closet. We didn't talk about it ever again. We didn't deserve to be treated like that.”

The conflict still is part of the reality for the men and women who visit the building the most, he and Van Dorston say. And so is the anger and shame those veterans felt when they returned from war and were spit on instead of honored for their service.

So Van Dorston decided to dedicate half the museum - a 1,000 square foot gallery space - to the special installation.

'They deserve their story in this gallery,” she says. 'Their perspective is, no one really talks about Vietnam.”

Her original plan for the display was to set up sections for each branch of service, with a mannequin in uniform and panels telling of that branch's contributions. Something simple, straightforward and respectful. But the veterans didn't like that idea.

They asked her, 'Do you want to tell the story of Vietnam, or do you want to tell our story of Vietnam?”

So she started conducting interviews, collecting local veterans' stories and the artifacts they brought back - items like uniforms, helmets and weapons. There are other things too - an unopened pack of Vietnamese cigarettes, a beer bottle, a model Vietnamese 'junk boat.” The boat represents fishing vessels one Iowa veteran remembers having to search for smuggled weapons and fighters.

The finished exhibit features informational panels for different years of the conflict, the artifacts from the veterans and a three-dimensional display depicting soldiers walking ashore, carrying their duffel bags, as captured by Associated Press photographer Henri Huet.

There is also an interactive section depicting the tunnel system North Vietnamese soldiers used to launch sneak attacks against American troops. A multimedia display featuring photos and video captured during the war by Eastern Iowa Veterans will play in a re-created 1960s living room - a nod to the fact the war was the first to be broadcast directly into America's living rooms.

A second part of an effort to honor Vietnam veterans still is underway. Emulating the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., the museum is having the names of all 912 Iowans who died, were prisoners of war or were missing in action etched on panels, which will be installed on a wall in the building's lobby. When completed by mid-December, the wall of names will be 8 feet tall and 20 feet wide. For the next two years, visitors will be able to take rubbings and leave memorials - things like flowers, notes or poems, under the names.

All of this is an effort to mark a decade commemorating Vietnam veterans, as decreed by President Barack Obama in 2012. The Iowa Veterans Welcome Center and Midwest Military Outreach are working with the Veterans Memorial Commission to make that declaration's goals a reality in Cedar Rapids.

'I hope they can see this and are proud and see the honor we're trying to put forth for them,” Van Dorston says. 'Because they certainly deserve it.”

Karr says he hopes younger generations, not just Vietnam War veterans, visit the exhibit.

'I want people to take their children to get an idea of what it was about,” he says. 'I hope they come away knowing we were just young kids who risked our lives and our futures.”

If you go

Vietnam: An Untold Narrative opening reception

' When: 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. View the exhibition through Nov. 11, 2016, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by appointment.

' Where: George Hamman Gallery, Second Avenue lobby, Veterans Memorial Building, 50 Second Ave., Cedar Rapids

' Cost: Free

Veterans Day Services

' When: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday

' Where: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Veterans Memorial Building, 50 Second Ave., Cedar Rapids

' Cost: Free