Vietnam Veterans reunite, heal on the Peninsula
Observer staff writer
NAHCOTTA-Owner Harold Maier of Nahcotta’s HarborView Motel hosted last week the fourth annualreunion of fellow Vietnam Veterans of the 3 Battalion/187th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
Harold Maier, owner/operator of Harbor View Motel in Nahcotta, welcomes fellow vets to his outfit’s fourth reunion, 33 years after they fought together in Vietnam.
The 30 former comrades in arms who fought together in 1967 and ’68 came from Alaska, Hawaii, New York, Florida, Texas, California, Tennessee, Michigan and West Virginia among others. Along with his wife Sheila, form Specialist 4 Maier organized four days of activities that included salmon fishing, a lunch meeting and ceremonies at the Ark Restaurant.
Most of the Veterans in attendance belonged to the battalion’s C Company. The vets of Charley Company surprised their former commander, James Kimball Bond, now from Colorado, and 71-year old first sergeant John T. Humphries, from Oklahoma, with commemorative plaques at the Saturday luncheon.
A number of Bond’s and Humphries’ former charges in turn gave testimonials about their former commissioned and non-commissioned leaders. “Thank you,” one former infantryman said, “for training us so well. You brought us home. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.”
Bond said the men of C Company underwent unit training together at Fort Campbell, Ky., accounting for the start of a unique level of camaraderie, “a sense of family.” The company endured a year of combat, centered mostly in an area west of Saigon near a village named Cu Chi. They were among the first soldiers who tested out the then-new air-mobile assault tactics, using helicopters for rapid insertions into and departures from enemy-held areas.
Eyes glistened as former soldiers sifted through their memories and emotions before the luncheon. “When you were where we were, doing what we did, you kept it inside,” Bond said. “Now we’re at the point in our lives when it doesn’t matter (that they show emotion).”
“Four years ago there were three people at the first reunion,” said Maier. “Three years ago, there were 12. Now there are about 50,” 30 of whom came to the peninsula with wives, friends and loved ones.
Many in the group praised and thanked the Maiers for hosting the event. Sheila responded, “I told them that it’s a small thing to do, and that I should be thanking them for what they did for their country.”
One grateful 101st Airborne vet turned to the Maiers on his way out the door at the end of the weekend and said, “I healed things I didn’t even know were hurt.”
The group plans a fifth reunion next year in Oklahoma. Until then, they will network throughout the year via the internet.
James K. Bond, former Captain and company commander of C. Company, 3/187th Airborne Infantry presents a plaque to his 1967 first sergeant John T. Humphries Saturday in ceremonies at the Ark Restaurant. The plaque read, “He took care of his men and they loved him for it.”