Reflecting at the wall

“The price of freedom is written on the wall,” read a sign near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall replica that visited Nassau County last week. Erected in Eisenhower Park, the wall serves as a site of healing, remembrance and education.

Among the many people who came to see the wall and share his knowledge with others was Vietnam veteran Pat Yngstrom, who said he was drafted into the United States Marines one month before his 20th birthday, but enlisted in the Army hoping to avoid deployment to Vietnam. However, he was later called upon to serve his country for one year; Sept. 15, 1970 to Sept. 14, 1971.

In comparison to World War II where units spent an average of 60 days in combat, those sent to Vietnam were in combat zones 240 days on average, Yngstrom said. “When I left basic training there were 32 guys and four of us came home,” he added.

Yngstrom, who resides in Merrick, returned to New York in one piece, but was injured during the war after jumping from a plane that was hovering 30 feet above the ground. A cast was placed on his right leg and removed in less than two months. The next day, he was sent back to battle.

Today, Yngstrom dedicates his time advocating for veterans and sharing his wartime experience, but added, “For 13 years I was just holding this stuff in being like any other crazy veteran, drinking too much and smoking too much, and then I stopped and got involved.” He is the past director of Nassau County Veterans Affairs, but stayed involved following retirement.

The wall was in the park for four days and hundreds came to visit the installation during that time. Some veterans shared wartime stories with onlookers, but a number of Vietnam veterans chose to visit the wall in the middle of the night and silently spend a moment with their fallen comrades.

“Sometimes we want to be alone with our thoughts, alone with our buddies,” said Morris Miller, Veterans Vietnam War National Education Program Director, who was sharing stories alongside Yngstrom.

To those who were interested in listening, Yngstrom and Morris stood near the center of the wall and recalled wearing 40 to 80-pound backpacks through the hot, humid forests and rice paddy fields where it rained at least four inches each day from October to February.

Morris was drafted to the Army at 20 years old and was in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. “It was a crazy war,” he still laments, “our country wasn’t behind us.”

While Nassau County residents came and went at their leisure from Thursday to Sunday, a formal wall welcome ceremony was held on Thursday evening. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, Vietnam Veteran and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and a flock of residents came out to commemorate the evening that kicked off Nassau County Veterans’ Weekend.