Ep. 48: Remembering Vietnam Veterans

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[00:00:43] Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hello and welcome to this episode of So Much More, A Mall of America Podcast. I am Dan Jasper, your host for today's show and I'm here with two very special guests to talk about a very important topic and they are both veterans

[00:01:00] who have served our country. The event is coming up on June 13th through the 15th here at Mall of America. It is the Vietnam War 50th anniversary commemoration event. My first guest Tom Lyons

[00:01:14] served in the United States Air Force in Vietnam and he is joined by the Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs Commissioner Brad Lindsey, who's also a veteran and the MDVA assists the states more than 294,000 veterans and their families throughout the state of Minnesota.

[00:01:33] The event at the mall will highlight the service of the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War, recognize the crucial contributions and deep sacrifices made by the allies of the United States during the Vietnam War and provide an opportunity for healing

[00:01:49] thanking and honoring Minnesota Vietnam veterans in whatever branch or capacity that they served. With that introduction, Tom Brad, welcome to the show. I'm glad to have you here. Thank you for joining me. Thank you Dan, appreciate you having us here. Yep thanks for having us out. And I'm

[00:02:05] going to start if you would very briefly give a little bit of your background as veterans. I'm going to start with Brad first if you don't mind a brief history of what brought you to this point. Sure, absolutely. So as you said I'm the commissioner of Minnesota Department

[00:02:19] of Veterans Affairs. I've served with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, I always say off and on since 1999. I started with them but I left for a brief period of six years when I was the Olmsted County Veterans Service Officers.

[00:02:36] So still working in the same field. I'm a veteran of the regular Army and the Army Reserve. My last service was 2003-2004. I actually served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 but my service goes back to 1988 where I also served in operations in Panama back in 1990.

[00:02:59] So wow. Thank you for joining us today and thank you for your service. We appreciate it so much. Thank you. Tom, you have a unique perspective on today's topic. Would you give us your

[00:03:09] background please? Well as a Vietnam veteran I'll make a few comments about that but first I'm a business owner. I own a mergers and acquisition advisory firm been doing that ever since I got

[00:03:20] back from Vietnam and I spend about half my time doing volunteer work including 14 years of Minnesota military radio and 15 years raising money to help Minnesota military families via the Minnesota Military Family Foundation which while America supports our Gulf Tournament every

[00:03:36] year. Yes but as a Vietnam veteran when this event came up they called me up from the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and told me about it and it seemed natural to say okay I'll volunteer

[00:03:48] to be the emcee and we'll bring the military radio show out here and do it. For your listeners my grandchildren tell me they don't teach too much about Vietnam but when we were in Vietnam

[00:04:00] I think the country was suffering from a hangover from World War II in Korea and the population was citizens of the United States were just tired of war. Yeah and so as a consequence I think they

[00:04:11] treated the Vietnam veterans poorly worse than any other veterans that we're aware of and as a group collectively we've made it our business to say never again we're going to support our troops, we're going to support their families and I think we've done that.

[00:04:26] As far as Vietnam is concerned I served at the United States Air Force, I served at Cameron Bay Vietnam and we closed that base on May 15th 1972. I was one of the last

[00:04:38] men to leave the base because in my section I was the only one that was single so I said okay I'll stick around until the last day so we were combat lifted out along with 300 security police

[00:04:50] and it was a little dicey the last few weeks slept in the vault at the finance office it's the safest place in the place and as a result of my volunteerism and staying to be the last one

[00:05:03] I got to come home from Vietnam about six weeks early okay and so I've been kind of volunteering ever since but it was the homecoming was not nice we lived through it we got over it

[00:05:16] and so the idea for this event to thank the Vietnam veterans to welcome them home and to show them resources where they can get help from various problems that we found out since have been

[00:05:26] caused by Agent Orange is pretty important we think that even the veterans that come next week whether they've filed for any disability or not they're probably eligible to for more because the congress passed a thing called the PACT Act about a year and a half ago that extends

[00:05:44] benefits to a greater number of diseases and so for those veterans that are coming next week we'll have some folks here that can talk to them about claims and talk to them about how they can get some medical care out at the Minneapolis VA which

[00:05:59] commissioner is one of the best VAs in the country I think it's rated number five the last six years I get my care out there they do a phenomenal job so this should be interesting

[00:06:08] I hope a lot of Vietnam veterans show up next week and if they do there's a lot of resources going to be available here and we can not only say thank you but we can help them

[00:06:16] with the various issues they may have so kind of following up on that first I have to say when we just met a few minutes ago I met you previously I had to joke that if he needed any tips if

[00:06:29] Tom needed any tips on radio interviews that I'd be willing to help because he's been doing this forever and he was so kind to say that I ranked really high in his list of past guests

[00:06:39] as I work that's my memory anyway that's what I think you're doing a real good job commissioner if you would go a little deeper into a why this event came about what the impetus the

[00:06:53] the idea behind it was and dive a little deeper into what guest coming and it's four people even beyond Vietnam veterans correct yes there are elements for the public yes absolutely so it basically all started back president Obama created an official commemoration

[00:07:13] committee for the Vietnam war 50th anniversary so that commemoration period ends in November of 2025 so it's kind of a rolling event it goes over 13 years I think Vietnam maybe is a little different

[00:07:29] than say today's D-day you know that's a hard 80th anniversary Vietnam didn't have quite as many of those those pivotal events that you can tie a date to so it is more of a rolling event but

[00:07:45] that was the impetus for it the governor came to my predecessor about three years ago and said you know the the US Vietnam war commemoration is going on I think we need to do

[00:07:58] something in Minnesota as well and of course you know Governor Walz is a veteran himself a retired Sergeant Major so we went forward with that and we asked the legislature for some funding to be able

[00:08:10] to do this we got it during the last session in 2023 and we've been planning and putting this together ever since with our partners but yeah you're absolutely right it's not just for the

[00:08:23] Vietnam veterans as Tom said with things like the PACT Act a lot of veterans benefits and services and the laws related to them have really changed in the last few years so you know I've been I've

[00:08:36] been telling folks you know you might have went into see your county veteran service officer in 1975 and 1995 2005 whatever it was and what you may have learned or been told then is not

[00:08:49] the case today things have changed so it's a it's a good opportunity for veterans to come come to our resource center learn about some of the new things that are available to them and also their

[00:09:02] families you know a lot of our Vietnam veterans are at least in their 70s generally and so some of past they may have passed from things that were related to some of these toxic exposures

[00:09:15] like Agent Orange and things like that and their families are potentially eligible for benefits because of that as well so good to have them here but also yeah like you said general public

[00:09:28] just to teach what is lacking I would say in school you know I graduated in 1988 so Vietnam ending was still fairly fresh but I don't think we covered anything about the

[00:09:43] Vietnam War when I was in high school so anything we can do to educate you know we're also including our allies in this commemoration you know many of our Southeast Asian allies moved to Minnesota

[00:09:57] immigrated to Minnesota after the war or years after the war even and made Minnesota their home so they're definitely part of this as well and we welcome them to join us also I appreciate

[00:10:08] you're bringing that up I mean that is we have a large Hmong population and part of that immigration started following the war correct correct yes we have the Hmong who were in special guerrilla units

[00:10:19] we have royal Laos armed forces that made their home here and we also had those who were members of the army Republic of Vietnam the South Vietnamese army who also came here after the war

[00:10:31] that's important thank you Tom you brought up something earlier I'd love to just cover a little bit more which was oftentimes Vietnam is considered the forgotten war perhaps or because veterans were not welcomed back it was a really challenging time politically within the United

[00:10:48] States and and we've seen different waves of veterans returning from different wars be treated at different levels right but this was really challenging and regardless of someone's political views these are still men and women that sacrificed a lot right to provide service to the United States

[00:11:12] can you talk a little bit about why it's important to take this opportunity to help to honor them well I think being a Vietnam veteran it's it's I agree to help and participate I think it's a

[00:11:25] great event but it isn't it isn't something we would have asked for yes but it but I think that's a reaction to the times when we were in Vietnam we'd get the Pacific press and the in the

[00:11:36] in the military newspapers and all we read about was anti-war riots and and body counts and things going on back in the United States and and when we came back we had heard and seen so many

[00:11:48] terrible things that all we really want to do is get out of uniform grow our hair out back when I could still grow hair and in and blend in with the population and it just was a it

[00:11:57] was a real strange time in the United States of America and and it was a bad enough experience as I said that most of us wanted to pull together in one way or another and make sure it didn't happen

[00:12:07] again and I think we've been largely successful with that but it was just a different time and and it was you know we were over there I volunteered to go in because I learned the

[00:12:18] GI Bill in good college sure there was a draft then yes so most of the guys were drafted and sent over there so it was it was a tough time we all went over there we all did our duty

[00:12:30] no matter what your job was as Patton used to say in World War II your armies only as good as its weakest link but everybody my recollection is everybody that was there were doing their

[00:12:39] jobs whether they wanted to or not protecting each other and trying to get home safe and and that's what troops do whenever they go to war your time my time World War II today

[00:12:51] as D-Day and we're honoring all of those can you imagine being in a landing craft and going up to Omaha Beach knowing that the Germans got their their weapons trained on you and as soon as

[00:13:02] you open up that gate you've got to go attack no those young men did it knowing full well that they might not come home we did it in Vietnam we did our jobs and a lot of us were

[00:13:13] support I wasn't a combat veteran but you know there were rockets going off and zappers and it wasn't a safe place so we were glad to get back to what we called the world

[00:13:23] which is United States and I think we were so happy to get back and get back alive that we were willing to just blend in and I would say for you know 20 years or so I didn't do a whole

[00:13:35] lot as far as Vietnam veteran member of the association but I joined the VFW you know I walked in there one night and the World War II guys got a hold of me and they signed me up

[00:13:44] and made me in charge of the picnic got me drunk and sent me home in a cab so and those were my buddies till they died I love it so we participated but we weren't very vocal fortunately the Vietnam

[00:13:57] veterans have been fighting for benefits related to Agent Orange which is a herbicide that affected anybody that was on the ground and of course Brad you can attest to this if you're in the

[00:14:09] army or if you're in the service if one part per gallon works well to kill off the the foliage was put 20 parts per gallon and that's really just a full string and nobody knew we didn't know I

[00:14:21] I have all kinds of issues type 2 diabetes other things that's why I stay busy and don't worry about them but you know I'm not mad yeah I'm disappointed that we didn't know better yeah

[00:14:31] but nobody knew and now after all these years with the PACT Act there are about 30 some diseases that are called presumptive diseases because they're presumed to have been caused by exposure to Agent Orange on the ground in Vietnam or Brownwater, Bluewater, Navy so

[00:14:47] the countries come around but you'll find the Vietnam veterans are fighting now because burn pits are the issue for his generation and we don't want them to have to wait 50 years and and everywhere you go everywhere we send our troops there's danger there's there's whether

[00:15:03] it's burning oil wells whether it's burn pits whether it's Agent Orange if we're going to send them there and they're going to risk their lives to go do their job we got to take care of them when they

[00:15:11] come back and I think we've made great strides in doing that and I hope it continues I agree thank you for that Brad the Mall of America okay this you wouldn't think of this as the natural setting

[00:15:27] as a place to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War right we have water skiing squirrels we have Cirque du Soleil we have Sumo wrestlers so you don't naturally think of this but when

[00:15:38] we were first approached by the organization we wanted to get involved because we offer something that I think a lot of platforms can't offer which is a lot of people that Brad takes care

[00:15:50] of a lot of Vietnam veterans that's the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs right so I mean this is it may not seem like a great location for this event but really it is because a lot of people

[00:16:00] come in this building can you talk more specifically about some of the events that our guests will see first of all veterans talk a little bit of the resource fair I know that there's a movie

[00:16:11] showing in our movie theaters I know that there are historical displays can you share a little bit like of that with our audience so they know what they'll see when they come and visit yeah

[00:16:22] yeah absolutely yeah Mall of America at first I when it was decided I was thinking that's a little different but then yeah you think about it you we have no worry about the weather in the past

[00:16:34] all of these events have occurred up on the state capital grounds we have to worry about the weather we have to worry about parking which is kind of difficult in that area so we come to

[00:16:45] a place that yeah weather doesn't affect us and parking is not an issue we can pull in buses bringing veterans in we have good handicap access and no matter what we're going to hold this event

[00:16:58] and get as many vets as we can but uh yeah so like we said it's the 13th through the 15th that whole time will be be running a resource fair where we will have a VA resources resources from

[00:17:12] the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs our partners our veteran service organizations we're also going to have folks that are up there working on oral history so a big piece of this

[00:17:26] for the public is capturing the history of some of these veterans and what they did in the service and what the U.S. did through them in Vietnam that as I said they're aging and in however many

[00:17:41] years we're not going to have them it's going to be like the World War two generation or the World War one generation who we no longer have at all so gathering that capturing it for posterity and

[00:17:53] keeping those recordings forever so people can use them for research and to celebrate this generation in the future as well as you said we're also going to have historical displays from the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum we are going to have a traveling tribute

[00:18:09] wall so a miniature version of the wall in Vietnam is going to be set up here and that's going to be here the whole time for folks to visit and look at the names and you know that really shows

[00:18:23] the true impact of that war you know there's 58,000 plus names on that wall and to walk around if you've ever been to DC to walk around and have a look at that we're going to replicate that

[00:18:37] to some degree here as well yes documentaries up in the theater area we're going to be showing on the Vietnam War you know I've said in weeks the past few weeks our hope is we're going to take over

[00:18:52] them all of America that day I love it we're going to take it over and you're welcome too we love it we hope that there are thousands and thousands of guests veterans their families

[00:19:03] their children and and just guests to learn more about the veterans who served most of the activations that are taking place at Mall of America on June 13th through the 15th are located in the

[00:19:17] atrium area of the mall which is the north side the north entrance area so for guests that have been here before if you park in the large surface lot next to Ikea and look at the mall walk in

[00:19:27] that door by the big star and you're going to find almost everything that you want to find for this event so it's easy parking easy access they can find more information at MinnesotaVeteran.org

[00:19:38] slash vietnam 50 or go to mall of america.com to find out more information on all of these events tom why am I just that Brad brought it up the American veterans traveling tribute wall it's a

[00:19:49] miniature version of the of the Vietnam wall if you've been to out to Washington DC they've got a world war two memorial uh I've gone out there for honor flights and the world war two

[00:20:00] guys are in there and they're remembering their buddies and everybody else is just quietly walking by and you go over by the Korean Memorial which is incredible especially at night and and it's and

[00:20:11] it's moving but you you walk by quietly and and you go over to the Vietnam wall and and everybody's about 20 feet back walking by on the sidewalk but there's there's some of us up

[00:20:22] there with our caps on and our dark glasses and they're doing a rubbing and they're actually and it's and it's we're over there blubbering and we're remembering the guys that we left behind and we're touching their names and we're remembering and and even the traveling tribute walls

[00:20:37] when they're out there you're going to see some some old Vietnam veterans that are up looking at a certain certain part of that wall and and they're just not they're not just looking they're they're remembering their buddies that they left behind and so

[00:20:50] this could be this could be an incredible week I hope there's Vietnam veterans from all over the state come in they're going to get resources they're going to see that wall they're going to have other than Vietnam veterans saying thank you for your service

[00:21:04] I think it could be it could be a great event for them and and I would encourage them to come in and just ask once again I've got some issues I've got diabetes I've got one of these problems

[00:21:16] there's going to be what's called a toxic exposure screening for Vietnam veterans and that's not a blood test you just sit down with someone from the VA and they'll be here

[00:21:25] they're going to ask you some questions do you have diabetes do you have this issue do you have that issue tell me about your life tell me when you were there and then if they think you're entitled

[00:21:34] some benefits and to be able to go out to the VA medical center to get some care then they'll set up a follow-up meeting for you so this is this is something that Vietnam

[00:21:43] veterans I think can and should take advantage of I hope they come even though most of them don't want to be bothered by an event like this and don't want no none of us are looking for

[00:21:54] any exposure any acknowledgement that's long since passed but I think this is a great opportunity in the state and the MDVA and in the mall wonderful opportunity to to greet those Vietnam

[00:22:06] veterans and and to help them with whatever they need thank you for for sharing that a little bit off topic but I just had to point out I know you're quite involved with beyond the yellow ribbon which is companies or organizations that strongly support military veterans

[00:22:25] mall of america has been a proud beyond the yellow ribbon company now for well more than a dozen years I think it's been a long time that we've been been active in that that's why we had you

[00:22:35] on the military that is why we were there that's why I'm among your top guests as I recall yes sir yes I think I was in the top 10 ranking but I think the cool thing about beyond the

[00:22:45] yellow ribbon and which goes back to that this is a special one-time three-day event right but it's important that companies and the public in general support I believe I should put it that way I

[00:22:59] believe it's important that we support our veterans every day in whatever way we can and this is just a way to to commemorate this specific war but it's a daily occurrence it's not a three-day

[00:23:10] occurrence it's a daily occurrence Brad I don't know how many numbers you have there but there a couple hundred communities they're beyond the yellow ribbon communities and I think like 80 companies have become yellow ribbon and what that means is they pull together in their communities

[00:23:23] and in their companies to support the families of the troops that are deployed yes and since 9 11 2001 the Minnesota National Guard has deployed 25 or 30 000 troops and why they're gone the beyond the yellow ribbon communities they might go mow the lawn they might shovel the snow

[00:23:41] they might just bring over some cookies and have coffee with the remaining spouse but they're they're there to help the families it's a community just like the Minnesota Military Family Foundation

[00:23:49] is yep and so the idea was when those troops are deployed they can they can focus on the mission get home safe we got your back we'll take care of your families where we're gone and that's

[00:24:01] Minnesota does it better than any other state Brad you know a lot about this absolutely I agree and you know big pieces like you were talking about too Dan it's uh those companies make a

[00:24:11] commitment too because they realize that hiring veterans is a good practice bringing them to work you get an employee who's disciplined who's worked as a team member of a team and can get the job

[00:24:25] done so veterans make great employees they do we can attest to that pretty easy to put in a good day's work nobody's shooting at you we have we actually have a lot of veterans that work at

[00:24:36] Mall of America proudly and we're honored to have them we're quickly running out of time but for those who aren't able to come to Mall of America June 13 through the 15th there are other ways for them

[00:24:47] to watch or participate correct can you share that yes absolutely so to make it easier I will first mention uh to get here we have worked with the disabled American veterans and the Minnesota veterans for veterans trust fund to set up buses and vans in different communities

[00:25:04] across the state I think there's about seven of them set up right now and if there's communities that are looking to or would wish to set up there's funding for that as well but if you

[00:25:15] go to minnesotavetrn.org slash vietnam 50 you'll find a list of buses and where the meeting points are and how to get connected with that as well but also yes we'll be running this as a live

[00:25:30] podcast if you will live streaming it on our website at minnesotavetrn.org slash vietnam 50 as well so it is another way to participate you know if you can't make an event and you're

[00:25:43] still looking for resources too Tom and I will always tell you there's one in every county in this state you have a county veteran service officer and as I said earlier if you haven't been

[00:25:55] in many years uh and are looking for assistance you've had medical conditions it's good to check in with them and see what's available and see how things have changed as well wonderful thank you

[00:26:06] for that remember thursday at noon we're going to record a live show minnesota military radio right here and then friday i'm volunteered to be the mc so we're going to have a put on a

[00:26:16] pretty good show and on friday after the program free child for the vietnam veterans a nice lunch is going to be on so i should have a good week next week i love it check out the website for all the

[00:26:25] details more information uh commissioner lindsay tom thank you both so much for joining me today thank you for helping to put on this really critical event and we're honored to host it here in

[00:26:36] mall of america and thank you so much for your service to our country we truly truly appreciate it and for all of our listeners to so much more thank you for tuning in please go to the

[00:26:48] website find out more about this event but also find out more of all the support that is offered to our vietnam veterans uh so that you can be connected and and we can all make this a stronger

[00:27:00] community together thanks so much for joining us thank you for tuning in to today's episode of so much more if you want to hear more be sure to subscribe to our podcast wherever you find your

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[00:27:24] show until next time thanks for listening so much more is presented by the bloomington convention and visitors bureau the official destination marketing organization for the city of bloomington minnesota before your next trip to mall of america visit bloomington mn.org for answers

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